From garage roosting (city chooks) to backyard coop roosting...

[Aneesa's Muse]

I have a beautiful bantam Salmon Faverolle rooster, Benjamin, and 3 gorgeous standard Black Star pullets (almost hens, yey!) ..Piss n' Vinegar, aka. PV ..Louise, aka. Weeze ...and Hannah, lovingly called "cry baby" ...and they all have a run in the backyard. They also have a coop, but I am fearful that the darn raccoons will get my babies ...so they have been roosting in our garage every night.

Recently, my coop was reinforced and even *I* have a hard time getting into it ..lol ....so I am considering putting the "kids" to bed in their own coop from now on. (It would save some of the poopies they like to plant on my washer and dryer, too

)


Should this be a problem? Will they have an adjustment type thing to go through? Does 45F - 55F warrant a heat source inside the coop or will they snuggle like they do in the garage? (I'm in San Francisco Bay Area ..short driving distance to the water)


Btw, they get plenty of extra yummy stuff to help them be at tip top health ...and they are all fully plumed now (Ben moulted soon after I got him, a few months ago).

BenBen: "Sleep outside... but why, Mah??"

PV: "You juss mean 'dem, hunh Mah... not me... I sleepin' wif YOU.. right, Mah??"


Thanks!

 

[Chickenaddict]

I would think locking them in their new coop and run for about a week would make for an easy adjustment. I move my coop and run up onto the patio on the backside of my house every winter so i can put a heat lamp in there when the temps drop below 30 and a heated water bowl in the run. 55 to 60 degrees however should be just fine for your babies. I know what ya mean about roosting in the garage, took me 2 months to break 2 of my pullets of that because that was where they were raised. Once they get used to their new digs they should be just fine.

 

[patandchickens]

First, may I say I *love* the beard on your roo, he looks just like my husband before he started greying

45-55F is nowhere near needing supplemental heat. The chickens are probably finally starting to get comfortable after the summer heat

The main adjustment will just be persuading them that things have changed. They will probably want to go back to the garage, have to be manually installed in the outdoor coop, and act like you've gone completely insane and should be institutionalized

If all else fails you can always wait til they have snuggled down for the night in the garage, nab 'em while they're snoozy, and move them to the coop roost then. Eventually they will get the clue, after waking up in the coop enough times

Good luck, have fun, still ROFL at your rooster's resemblance to my DH,

Pat

 

[Aneesa's Muse]

Pat... Ben's beard kind of makes my hubby envious, as his job won't allow him to let it get as full and fluffy

I'm going to try the "sneak them in their coop after they are groggy" trick.. cuz I already know PV is gonna knock at the back door endlessly, until we give in and let her in the garage.

She is quite attached to her Mah!