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GetFitWithKrista
Chirping
Thank you very much for taking the time to share you experience and your systems. It sounds like you have a ton of experience. I am grateful that you all take your personal time to help newbies like me. It's very generous.The closest equivalent to your 8 week olds is when I move 5 week olds from the brooder in my coop to a grow-out coop. The grow-out coop is 4' x 8' and is elevated about 2 feet. It has an 8' x 12' run with it. That run is a sectioned off part of my main run so the chickens can see each other when they are in the runs. I typically have around 20 chicks in my groups. I feed and water in both the grow-out coop and in the run.
I typically leave the chicks in the coop section only for a week, then I let them in the run by opening the pop door and let them decide when they want to go to the run. There have been times every one has been on the ground within 15 minutes, one group took into the third day before they were all are on the ground. Usually I open it in the morning and they are all on the ground by early afternoon.
When it gets dark they gather under the pop door to go to sleep. I think that's because mine is elevated, yours is not so I think you have a good chance of it working. When I move chickens to my main coop or another shelter I have on the ground this is not a problem. But I catch them one by one and lock them in the new coop. After it gets dark they are pretty easy to catch. I just toss them on the coop floor, I don't worry about trying to put them on the roost or anything like that. They figure it out.
I've had a couple of groups where I had to put them in for three weeks before the last few caught on and put themselves to bed. One time, which was hilarious, I put them in once, 17 in that group. The next night they all gathered under the pop door to sleep on the ground like all the others do but I walked down there about that time to do something else. When they saw me they started going into the coop one by one. I just stood and watched. Everyone went in on their own and from then on they all went in whether I was there or not. I tried that with every following group but never got that to work again. Typically by the second or third night a few started putting themselves to bed at dark and after about a week they were all going in. But each group is different.
When mine went in they gathered in a group on the floor to sleep. No huddle boxes or anything. It was a grow-out coop so no nests or anything other than roosts. By this time they were usually 6 to 7 weeks old. Most of my broods started sleeping on the roosts at around 10 to 12 weeks old. There were no adults around, similar to yours. I had one group start roosting at 5-1/2 weeks, some groups took a little longer than 12 weeks but 10 to 12 weeks was a good average. I don't try to roost train them, I let them roost when they think they are ready. I think a lot of this timing has to do with what your coop and roosts look like.
A few times instead of locking them in the coop section only for a week I immediately gave them access to the run also. These also piled up in the run when it got dark so I went through the same process of locking them in the coop at night. If anything it took an extra day or two to get them to put themselves to bed. Any advantage was small. But your coop is on the ground. I think you have a real good chance of training them to go in at night if you leave them locked in the coop for a week. With your set-up I'd try it.
I cannot think of a single reason why that would be any better. I like to be able to go back to look at photos or check details.
I agree you don't want them sleeping in the nests but I did not block my nests with the first group I got and since I now always have hens laying I never block them. This is in my main coop where I do have nests, not like my grow-out coop with no nests. When my broody hens wean their chicks the chicks sleep in the main coop since that is where they grew up. Sometimes the broody hens take their chicks to the roosts before they wean them but occasionally they don't. Sometimes after the broody weans them and leaves them on their own a bully will run the chicks off of the roosts so they go back to sleeping on the coop floor. And I move the pullets from the grow-out coop to the main coop before they start to lay. My situation is different from yours now with my adults but was exactly the same with my first group of chicks.
I have nothing against closing the nests for a while as long as they are open about a week before the first one lays. When will the first one lay? No one knows. I've had some lay at 16 weeks and I've had some start at 9 months. With most of mine it is around 19 to 25 weeks but there are no rules. They lay when they lay.
One reason I want the nests available a week before they lay is that some (not all but some) start looking for a safe place to make a nest about a week before they lay. This usually involves scratching and arranging the bedding. It is not always in your nests either, will not be if they are not available. I want those nests available so they are at least in consideration. I do not want to train the pullets to lay somewhere else because the nests are not available.
With their scratching you may find your nest bedding and fake eggs dumped out on the coop floor. This generally means your nest is inadequate. You may need to raise the lip some to make it harder for them to scratch bedding, fake eggs, and real eggs out. I'd like to know this so I can fix the nest before real eggs wind up on the floor. I had this happen once in a tractor I built.
Typically if your roosts are higher than your nests they will not sleep in the nests. But that does not mean always. If they are going to sleep in the nests I'd want to know so I can fix that before I start getting poopy eggs. If they do sleep in the nests there are ways to retrain them, depending on what is causing it. Closing off the nests before they go to bed can be useful but may not be the entire solution.
These are the reasons I want the nests open before they start to lay. Before then, I don't care if they are open or closed. And I don't care where mine sleep as long as it is not in the nests and is someplace predator safe.
We're trying to apply some of what you and the other "counsel" members (
) have advised. It's a big help. Thanks a million!
