Heat light removal

[JessiaCox]

I have 6 hens thats are about 9 weeks old. They have been outside since they were 6 weeks old with a heat light in their coop. Today we got two new chicks to add to our flock and since the night Temps are running about 60 I decided to just remove their heat lamp and bring it inside for the new chicks. Now the older chickens are acting very uncomfortable in their coop( they were putting themselves to bed and tonight they refused to go in and I had to chase them all down.) They were very noisy about going in and flapping around and when I opened the big door to check on them they were plopped on the ground instead of in their nesting boxes. Yes very dramatic bunch of chickens I have. Will they adjust to being in the dark? Should I be cooping them up earlier? I was letting them put themselves in when they were ready then locking the door at 10pm. I could tell they were very stressed about bed tonight because they flew out of their 5ft fence and were all at my bedroom door right before I had to chase them down. Hoping they will adjust to the no light because I didn't plan on using one forever.

 

[chrissynemetz]

Is there any light at all, windows or something? Chicks don't like going into a dark coop. They will adjust to it, but before they do they'll make sure you know they're not happy about it.

 

[gtaus]

When I first moved my 8 week old chicks outside to their coop and run, I think I had to manually pick up some of them and put them on the ladder into the pop door of the coop. But that was only the first day or two. After that, they naturally started going into the coop at dusk by themselves. It took maybe another week or two before all the chickens figured out to jump up on the roosting bar for the night. Some of them slept on the floor for a week or so, but eventually they all found their way to the roosting bar for the nights.

I do have 2 windows in my chicken coop, so when the chickens go into the coop at dusk it is not completely dark inside. I don't have any lights in my chicken coop. Chickens can't see in the dark, so I imagine they would not want to enter a completely dark coop, especially if previously there was a light inside. I would either add a window for natural light or maybe put a small nightlight in the coop if there are no windows. My chickens have no problem sleeping through the night in total darkness. They start to get up and move around in the morning when light starts to come in through the windows.

 

[GC-Raptor]

Yep, a nightlight. I got one in both coops. The LED nightlight's only use 1 watt.
I turn them off when I lockup the coops after sunset and everyone's on the roosts.

GC

 

[JessiaCox]

Thank you, I think I will be adding in a night light to make them more comfortable going in at night and I will turn it off after they have all gone in. They were definitely not happy with me still this morning when I let them out and they all were huddled in a corner not in there nesting boxes. Gotta make my girls happy for sure =)

 

[aart]

not in there nesting boxes

They should not be sleeping the nests anyway

 

[JessiaCox]

They should not be sleeping the nests anyway

Well thank you for this comment, I did a little bit of research and never realized they were not suppose to sleep in their nest boxes. Much appreciated!!

 

[aart]

Well thank you for this comment, I did a little bit of research and never realized they were not suppose to sleep in their nest boxes. Much appreciated!!

Block the nests off for now.
Make sure the roost is higher than the nests.

 

[gtaus]

Well thank you for this comment, I did a little bit of research and never realized they were not suppose to sleep in their nest boxes. Much appreciated!!

Chickens poop at night while they sleep, so you don't want them sleeping (and pooping) in the nest boxes where they lay their eggs.

The roost bar should be higher than the nest boxes because chickens naturally seek a safe place to roost as high as they can. The roost bar should be placed somewhere in the coop where their nighttime poop falls down on to the litter where it can be easily cleaned. In other words, don't put the roost bar over things like nest boxes, feeders, waterers, etc...

I encourage you to look into the deep litter method for the coop. It has really worked out well for me. I have about 8 inches of wood chips in my coop, and the poo under the roost bar almost magically disappears into the litter. There is almost no smell to the deep litter I use. If I detect any smell, I will either stir up the litter a bit, throw some scratch grains in that area to let the chickens work up that spot, or maybe just put some fresh chips in that spot. Point is, I have gone almost a full year with deep litter and have not cleaned out the coop yet - and yet it smells better and cleaner than when I was constantly cleaning out the coops when I did not use the deep litter method.