Going into coop at dusk

[Longshot]

My chicken have gone into the coop at dust every night until recently when we added electricity to it. We put a light on a timer since then they wont return to coop at dusk. We have stopped turning the light on at dusk but they still stay on their perch outside the coop. W have to pick them up and put them in.

 

[otonoh]

Does your light give of a vibration or sound that scares your birds? When I added light to my coop, they didn't have any problem going inside.

 

[Longshot]

No it doesn't give off a sound thought It may have been too bright so I lowered it to 40watts. Last 2 nights i've turned it off and at 9:45p.m. they were still on perch out side of coop. They have been in this coop since May.

 

[mickey328]

Try leaving the light off at dusk and have it come one a couple hours before dawn. They'll still get the extra light, but when it starts getting dark outside, they should go back to putting themselves to bed.

 

[bigchicken56]

What kind of light is it, frosted, etc.? Make sure the light is at least 7 feet of the floor and try to set to go off in the morning instead of dusk.

 

[farmin4fun]

Try leaving the light off at dusk and have it come one a couple hours before dawn. They'll still get the extra light, but when it starts getting dark outside, they should go back to putting themselves to bed.

I would try this suggestion by Mickey. Chickens cannot see well at night. I think what may be happening is that the chickens are outside when the light clicks off and they cannot see well enough to get back inside the coop and roost.

 

[Kurczak]

Hi, our chickens never had a problem with going into their coop at night and for two days now we have to manually put them in, they are very reluctant. The only changes we made to the coop is a small hole that we drilled under the water feeder since it sloshed over when chickens were using it(it's hanging on a chain to stop them from roosting on top of it, it was like this since the beginning), also we had to tape the cable higher as the chickens kept on unplugging the light by accident ). It's late autumn in ME, it's pretty cold in the evenings.

We are going to try one of the advice we've seen here - about turning of the light only in the morning. Another thing we spotted is that there are small black bugs everywhere, but it's not just around the coop but in the whole yard, even on the post box (the past few days the weather went up from almost freezing at night to warmer and I guess bugs woke up...)

If anyone else has any other suggestions? We already lost one chicken, she did not make it inside the coop and we couldnt find her anywhere, looked for her with a flashlight in the woods.

 

[Kurczak]

(of course we meant * turning ON the light in the morning not at dusk, we tried using the edit option but it wouldnt work sorry)

 

[Chicks Galore3]

Kurczak- Try keeping them locked in the coop for a little while, maybe a week or so. If you have a run, letting them out there will be fine. Just to get the accustomed the the change or reinforce that this is their home.