I suggest you keep them for at least a week in the new coop, until they really learn where home is. After that, they should return to the coop every night as it starts to get dark.
Should. It does not always work like that. For a variety of reasons, they may decide they do not want to sleep in the coop. Often, this is because they really had not accepted the coop as home. One week was not quite enough. It usually is, but you are dealing with living animals. They don't always read the same book. But a week is what I'd use.
Chickens cannot see real well in the dark. If the coop is too dark while it is still kind of light outside, they may not be able to see well enough to go in to go to bed. Often a window or low powered light can help if this is the problem.
Sometimes if they get a fright in the coop, like they see a predator in there, they may not want to go in there. That does not happen often, but it occasionally happens. Usually that is not all the chickens that refuse to go in in this case, but just a few of them.
With the age of yours, one thing I would be on the lookout for is that sometimes, the older chickens pick on the younger chickens so bad when they try to go to the roosts that the younger chickens start looking for someplace else to sleep. Sometimes that is just somewhere else in the coop, often the nests, but a couple of times, that has been outside the coop for mine. It does not happen all the time, but if you see this type of behavior, you might recognize what is going on.
With all that said about what might go wrong, I still recommend you keeping them locked up for about a week or so, then try it. Odds are pretty good you will be real happy with the results. Justb because something can gio wrong does not mean it will. Good luck!
