HELP, How do I get the chicks to go in the coop at dusk?

[chickenranchwife]

I know when my girls were little I had to put them back in the coop few by few and they got the hang of it after a little while. They will train to be hearded if you have a little help.

 

[Charlie Chicken]

Another thing to consider is that heat lamp inside the coop. It may be causing them to be terribly confused. When they are out in the run and and it starts to get dark their instinct tells them that its time to settle down for the night so they do just that. A light inside the coop would not entice them to go in there and in fact would tell them just the opposite.

I know there are two schools of thought in this but unless you are living at the North Pole, once they are fully feathered out chickens do not need a heat lamp.

 

[Justino]

i scare mine inside

well i used to follow them around with a stick(not hitting them ofcourse!) and then after a week they went in on their own

 

[Charlie Chicken]

Yes, a herding stick works good too for the times when you would like to get free running chickens to go inside before they consider its time to go in on their own.

I keep a herding stick (an old fishing pole) handy by the barn door for when I want them to go in early. Its fun to develop your herding skills over time so that you can sense the correct speed to herd them and to sense exactly when you need to point the stick left or right in anticipation of their moves.

Its very similar to when a sheep dog does his thing with a herd of sheep. They can sense when one of the sheep is about to bolt from the flock and they run over to head them off.

 

[RyanAndMeri]

We can barely get our chickens to go outside (they don't like the snow!) so count your blessings, I guess! They do like to stand in the coop doorway however and just look out, but I guess breed has a big part to play - we're raising Buff Orpington's right now and they're content to be cooped up.

We have two younger hens that we're still keeping in the house until they can deal with the freezing weather. They are a lot different! We can't keep them in their pen. They're little escape artists -- we have them locked in their pen with bird block tacked all around and they manage to escape all the time. We have them locked up fairly well too, our cats couldn't escape from their pen - but the chickens manage.

Funniest thing about it is they escape and either sit in front of the christmas tree, or climb up on the sofa and roost there. When I try to get them back in their cage they run all over like it's a big game, and when I catch one of them the other gets all huffy and squacks and squacks and then puts herself in the pen. She absolutely wont let me do it. Then once she's in she chews me out in chicken language until I appologize. She gets REALLY loud too! I'll have to record it some time, it's like chicken swearing. And the only thing she's upset about is that they got caught. They usually make their great escape around 8 or 9 in the evening, so I figure they dont see their box (it's big with a couple roosts in it) as an adequate roost.

Peculiar animlas, who would have though they had so much personality!

 

[Churkenduse]

I thought that all chickens go "home to roost" every night all by themselves without coaxing.

The first time I put mine in the run I went out later to check on them, they were there already. I guess I am lucky.

I did hear that you have to pick them up and place them in the coop for a few days to give them the hang of it.


Likepotty training kids, they will get it soon enough