Chicky freedom?

[H2OKarensa]

Will 7 week old chicks go in to roost in their own coop when the sun goes down?

I want to try to free range my babies, but there are 10 of them and I'm not sure I want to run around to try to catch them all if they don't go in.

 

[RendonRoo]

You may have to show them the way the first couple of evenings. A light in the coop at dark helps too. Good Luck and welcome to BYC

 

[MissouriChick]

Yes, they will, but it probably will take a couple of days for them to start going in voluntarily.
Our chicks have been free ranging since they were about 5 1/2 weeks old and we had to hand put them in for the first few nights (that was fun--all 50 of them!). I would turn the light on about 8-8:30ish and start trying to give them some subtle hints about settling in for the night by stocking their food and water. By the 3rd or 4th night they all went into their house by 9 p.m. Albeit it, it was pretty well dark by that time and I would have liked them to go in a little earlier but they DID go in, on their own.

Don't make the mistake and move their coop on them though. We did that this past weekend (our coop is on wheels and was originally going to be like a chicken tractor but we changed our minds so now, its a semipermanent kind of coop) and we ended up having to move them, once again, one by one into their coop at night. They were so confused, they just kept cheeping and walking in circles where their coop used to be. Then, the mobbed the base of the nearest tree and started trying to see who could get closest to, if not on, the tree trunk. It was fascinating to watch but I felt so bad that we had confused them so badly.