Getting young chickens to go to bed.

[Pghelp]

Cannot recommend herding sticks enough! By accident I started shooing my young ones with a sad kale plant I had yanked up. Now I have a dedicated stick to gently guide them to the coop. I swear sometimes they hear me say "night-night stick time" and off they go into the coop. Works beautifully and wish I had known this with my old girls!

 

[3KillerBs]

Cannot recommend herding sticks enough! By accident I started shooing my young ones with a sad kale plant I had yanked up. Now I have a dedicated stick to gently guide them to the coop. I swear sometimes they hear me say "night-night stick time" and off they go into the coop. Works beautifully and wish I had known this with my old girls!

Mine is "Bedtime for Birdies" -- though with darkness falling so early I'm often not able to go out after dinner until it's already dark and they're already in bed.

 

[New ISA Brown Dad]

Welcome to BYC!
You could probably keep trying to put them up at night so they can get used to going into their coop. Don't take my word for it, though.

This recommendation worked. I put them up one at a time closing the door one at a time. Miraculously, on night 4, I went out to put them up and couldn't see them but I could hear them. I opened a door to look inside the coop and there they were. They have put themselves to bed ever since. Thank you and everyone for the advice.