FREE RANGING, A how do you gwet them into their pen BEFORE dusk?

[texasgal]

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This WORKS ... I just pick up my stick now and they run into the pen!

 

[Svarthona]

Food

during the training-phase I always had a bag with their food with me. Whenever they came to me they got some. Now if I stand in their run they´ll come flying to get their treat out of my hands. This worked extremely well - possibly too well though. As soon as I´m outside they will follow me around the yard and won´t leave me alone for a second

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[Quillgirl]

Yep, treats. Mine come for mealworms. Also, mine are all hens, so the ones who straggle behind, I walk up to and they squat so I grab them!

 

[ozark hen]

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good for you and welcome to BYC.
We use two long walking sticks for the stubborn ones but mostly I just give them a couple handfuls of cracked corn when I want them all inside. There are times I have to leave and don't expect to be back before dark so I put them up early. Now the idea of hooting like an owl is intriguing and makes me laugh. I just might try that the next time I have that one stubborn hen refusing to go in at night.

 

[big medicine]

If the weather is clear , my old birds are a pretty much a lost cause. Throwing some scratch in the coop, being sure to hit the metal hanging feeders, and making them ring, will bring those within earshot. Having no effect on those scattered out wide. I have noticed they do get scarce when a mower, string trimmer, or leave blower, is running. Not sure if they go in or just hide, will look into it once the grass greens up next year.
Now my young chicks, once feathered out and allowed out into fenced runs for the first time seem to lack the brain development to grasp the concept of going back in a chicken door. A few seem to stumble their way back in the coop, most don"t. If you let them stay out too late they will just try to roost on the ground next to the coop and you end up having to pick up every chick and physically place them inside coop, which can take some time and effort with a hundred+ chicks. One method I use is to turn the lights on in the coop as soon as the old birds have gone in, grab a empty paper feed bag, go out into the run and shake or rattle the bag menacingly from a little distance.The goal is to make the chicks nervous, but not freaking them out (I have brahmas, pretty laid back birds so you might reach freak out much quicker with more flighty breeds) getting them to mill around the chicken door. Note: place you outside runs so the chicken door falls in the corner of the run, this minimizes the chances of chicks running mindlessly past the door repeatively. Seeing their hatchmates inside in the lighted coop seems to help them figure it out. When they get a little older and a few still don't have it figured out, the bag seems to loose its effect. Just drop a few stones in it and you have the new and improved "BAG O DEATH" with improved sound effects, which seems to recapture their attention. The bag is used to block the door while I go around to close the chicken door from the inside.

 

[matthewschickens]

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I do the same thing but I shake the cup and they run over really fast!