Having A Hard Time Catching My Chickens

[3riverschick]

Get a chicken net
Or I used a wire dog exercise pen.
Clipped one end to the run. Set it so I only had to pull the pen out and around the Birds to the other side of the Run . this made a small Pen. I would gently herd them into that corner of the pen then pull the fence around . So I had a small pen that I can walk into and gently pick up the birds .it worked out real well.
Karen

 

[Awestruck]

Well, thanks for all the ideas. I put some mealworms in a cup, in the evening, before I want to put them away. They run to me and I let them eat out of the cup. Ginger is so greedy though! She hogs the whole thing if I let her! I put some mealworms on the ground, and have put the mealworms also in the food dish that is in the coop. I don't know that they have figured out yet, that I put it there, but maybe it will be an incentive for them to go into the coop easily.
Some of them go back into the run, and I put pillows in the way to stop them from going under the coop. I can corner them easily from this.
Hopefully, over time, we will figure all this out.
My husband also bought a net to catch them in, if I need to.

 

[rosemarythyme]

You're most of the way there with the mealworms before bedtime. What you can try next, now that they associate the cup with the worms, is once they're over and starting to eat, pour some worms into your hand and chuck them straight into the coop (no need for a dish). Shouldn't take them long to learn to chase the worms into the coop, and then you can shut the door behind them.

You can also use the same cup with worms if you want to get them to come to you or follow you. Chickens don't really have the longest attention span, but I've gotten mine to follow me from their run, across the driveway, to the side lawn, just by shaking the worm container gently and stopping for treat break every so often.