How do I pursuade my flock to let newbies sleep with them???

[Granolamom]

We have a brother and sister pair who was hatched by Sarah, our only BO hen, 4 months ago. They got kicked out of the henhouse at some point, when they no longer had the devoted attention of their mom, and have since then slept on a roost right above the henhouse (which is inside a fully enclosed pen, so they're still safe from predators). Now that it's getting cold, we want them to sleep with the flock, and have been plucking them off their roost and putting them inside the henhouse every single night for about a week. They don't seem to get the message, though, and still fly up to their "exile roost" every evening.
Will they at some point give in, and go inside the henhouse, or will we have to move them every single night, until the end of days?

 

[Opa]

I start placing them in the coop at night. After a few times they will get the hang of it.

 

[chookchick]

Do they have more than one roost bar in the coop? Maybe they need another place in there--the oldies may be kicking them off still. Could you move the roost that is outside to inside--that would not give them much option but to go in.

 

[redhen]

At night i place them right up on the roost with the other birds..

 

[TexasVet]

Took mine about a week to figure out that they're supposed to sleep in the hen house. Might help if you clip one wing, so they can't make it up to the old roost.

Kathy, Bellville TX
www.ChickenTrackin.com

 

[Granolamom]

If I remove their outside roost, they'll just sleep on top of the hen house (tried that). I have 2 roosts inside the house (more would not fit), but the other 7 use both. There's plenty of space between them, to fit at least 4 more birds, it's just that the big ones won't allow them in there. I really hope that the flock will just "get over it" at some point, if I continue to stick the 2 "kids" in there every night.

 

[Renee']

Good luck. Mickens decided to start roosting on the fence rather than in the coop and I had to hand carry each individual chicken to bed for about 2 months. They FINALLY went to bed in the coop last night! Yeah!