Everyone said they would, but I didn't believe it....

[obxWaMi]

until today.

We let our chicken out of the pen late in the afternoons to hunt for bugs. Today I had a friend stop by and we lost track of time. When I realized it had turned dark I also realized I hadn't herded the chickens back into their pen. I paniced and sent my daughter out into the yard with a flashlight to look for them figuring we would find them roosting on something. Instead, they had gone back to the pen and into their coop by themselves! All we had to do was shut the door. Boy, that sure beat moving about the yard in the manner of a sheep dog.

 

[gottalovemychickens]

been there , done that .

Its cool , they know where home is hahah

 

[PortageGirl]

LOL, Mother Nature had em all tucked in for you.

 

[Chotii]

Sometimes my girls put themselves to bed, and sometimes I've found them huddled stupidly outside their little run, in the dark, unable to figure out how to walk around to the other side where the door is.

I loves me my chickies, but they is real stupid sometimes.

 

[chickenshagg]

Mine always make it back to the run. Sometimes though I will actualy have to put them inside the coop because they will be roosting on their regular perchases. The other evening I had let my three older girls out but kept the young ones closed in the run. I had to leave and knowing that there was not going to be any way that I would be able to convince the big ones to go back to their run I took a fallen tree branch and rested it about halfway up the fencing on their run, then I left. Even though I was gone for less than an hour it was dark when I got home. I went back to check on the girls first thing and foound one of them inside the run on the perch another was resting on top of the seven foot high fence and the third girl was on the high part of the branch that was propped up against the fence.....They always want to go home to go to bed at night.

 

[AmyRey]

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Mine couldn't find their coop when I moved it 50 feet to a new spot. They could find it to lay, but not to sleep. Go figure.

 

[flakey chick]

I moved their tractor a little over 50 feet. They saw it it and examined it on their way to and from the compost heap, but when it came bed time, they went back to the old spot and were looking puzzled. "I'm sure it was here just last night".

They are very good about putting themselves to bed. When they were teenagers, I had a less secure day-time pen for them and they slept in their brooder at night. I would let them out when I got home from work. When it was time to go to bed, they would politely peck at the back door asking to be let in.

 

[Joyryder]

I'm moving mine to a real coop this weekend. They basically lived outside in a totally enclosed dog run with a playhouse. Most of the slept outside on top of the playhouse.
Do you think they will hate being coop up? Should I keep thei feed inside? Should be interesting?

 

[AHappychick]

I used to spend dusk running around like a mad woman chasing chickens into the coop until one day I was about 10 minutes late and realized that they would do it themselves. But wanting to get dinner ready I was on an earlier schedule then they were so I adjusted my locking up time which then just became closing doors rather than herding

 

[tryingtohaveitall]

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