Getting the babies used to their coop -- suggestions?

[malimom]

Congratulations! We're also making great progress. Since I last wrote 3 days ago there has been progress every evening. Last eve, my husband came home just before sundown and went straight down to the coop. ALL of them had entered the roosting area for the night! However, when he walked into the coop to check on them they all came out to see what treats he had for them! Hah! He got them all back in eventually...but they ARE getting the idea!!

 

[cooped up]

Mine finally got the hang of it for what seemed like a couple of weeks.I'm not sure why they wait later than the hens, but it is literally last light.

Now introducing them to the hens!!

I won't have any hair left when I'm done.

 

[L3Home]

Tonight, again, they were all in there when I went to look! This time they even settled down on their own (I was out a bit late and I didn't get back until over an hour after sundown, so their light was on during that time). I turned it off for them, but tomorrow I'll put it on a timer.

They're being great girls (and baby Roo lol). Their graduation gift is going to be the introduction of their fenced run... now that they know where to sleep, I think it's time to let them out into it, they should be able to get back to the right place when the sun goes down now.

 

[2Old2Crow]

Night #6, 7, or 8,,,I lost count. They all go in, but none fly up to the roost. Did they not see all the work I put into the Poop Drawer???????

 

[QUAILHILLFARMS]

We have had our chicks outside for 2 weeks but we are running to get them out of the rain so we don't know if they will go in by themselves. We have 25 buff orpingtons (thought we would lose some as we are newbies but did not) and about 1/2 were in the coop or in the door at 1 hour before sunset tonight. Should we just see how they do on their own? They are 6 weeks old. Some are very friendly and some are not. We use treats to get them in when we think it is going to rain. We are in Missouri and you can't count on the weatherman. What do you think?

 

[Izzymoon]

after reading this thread, I think I'm going to create a "mock" ramp in the brooder and train them ahead of time, so by the time they go outside (they are only 3 weeks old) they'll be pros at it. We're still getting some very chilly nights. Thanks for all the tips

 

[L3Home]

It'll be interesting to know if the mock ramp helps at all. I'm discovering that chickens seem to have very bad spacial relation deduction -- they can't figure out that to get onto the other side of a fence they have to go around the fence to the open side of it. Stuff like that. It makes pathing for them challenging. I am beginning to think that it's more habit and repetition that is winning when it comes to their birdie brains. Though my little Ida seems a bit ahead of the curve. And one of my Delawares is dumb as a rock. A flat one. With moss.

The timer worked great, so now that's one less thing for me to bother with.

I did finally get the run completed (or mostly!) -- enough so that it's safe from cats, digging dogs, skunks, etc., so I finally let them out into it and they had a blast. They went back into the coop just fine, which was my concern with expanding their roaming area, so I am breathing a big sigh of relief that I didn't have to go back to square-whatever on that.

 

[Ourfamilyflock]

Really interesting idea on the ramp in the brooder would love to know how that works. I put a branch roost in our brooder and they were all pros at roosting when they came out, so might just work for the ramp too.

 

[Izzymoon]

I'll let you know, they are getting moved to the basement tomorrow, I'll take a photo after I set it up. I hope it works!

 

[QUAILHILLFARMS]

Thanks to you all! We decided to leave our chickens outside until dark and they are deciding that they want to go into the coop. We have coddled our chickens too much I think. They are smarter than we are. Anyway. I will tell you if we are totally sucessfull.