How late do your chickens stay up?

[chicksurreal]

I have to ask this question because we have only had experience with our Silver Spangled Hamburgs until recently.

They stay up LATE (for chickens)! I have to go put most of them to bed in the coop because they love to stay up outside in the run on roosts we put out there or walking around on the ground. I've gone out there when the sun is completely down and it's almost dark and they are still up!

Recently we got a Cuckoo Marans rooster and he is in the coop by 4:30 or 5:00 P.M., my other chickens stay up for hours after that. Are they just "night owls" like me, or is it a breed thing? anybody have experience with different breeds going to bed at different times?








Edited to add - The Hamburgs also get up several hours after the Cuckoo Marans roo. He's crowing at 4:30 and they are still lollygagging in the coop at 6:00. Lol!

 

[TheChips]

Oh my 5pm? What an early bird!

I leave my chickens out til its dark outside. They put themselves to sleep. It gets dark around 10pm here.
Once its dark they go back in their coop and roost for the night.

If Im late on closing the doors, I will find my Alpha bantom rooster outside the doors sleeping on the floor "keeping watch"

So when I am late, he does his little shimmy shake at me like "hey woman youre late!" Then goes inside.
He likes his routine.

 

[chicksurreal]

Oh my 5pm? What an early bird!

I leave my chickens out til its dark outside. They put themselves to sleep. It gets dark around 10pm here.
Once its dark they go back in their coop and roost for the night.

If Im late on closing the doors, I will find my Alpha bantom rooster outside the doors sleeping on the floor "keeping watch"

So when I am late, he does his little shimmy shake at me like "hey woman youre late!" Then goes inside.
He likes his routine.

Lol!

One night I had a little crisis and forgot to close them in the coop and they were roosting outside all night (in a completely enclosed run). They free-range during the day and if I don't get them in the run in the evening, they will roost in trees, they love to be outside and want to behave like wild birds.

A very few of my 14 birds will actually put themselves to bed in the coop. I always have to go round up the stragglers.

 

[TheChips]

I can only imagine how long it takes you to rangle up 14 birds! Doing 8 (1 is currently sitting on two eggs) can take me a while if they want to be stubborn and not want to go back in their enclosed area. I have a 20ft by 20ft outdoor area with 2ft of chicken wire under it. I only let 3 truely free range. I just got them and slowly introducing them to my others.

 

[chicksurreal]

I can only imagine how long it takes you to rangle up 14 birds! Doing 8 (1 is currently sitting on two eggs) can take me a while if they want to be stubborn and not want to go back in their enclosed area. I have a 20ft by 20ft outdoor area with 2ft of chicken wire under it. I only let 3 truely free range. I just got them and slowly introducing them to my others.

We've had them since they were a day old (except for the Cuckoo Marans roo, who is penned separately) and I got them used to eating treats out of my hand. Whenever they see me in the evening with the seed bag they come running, so it's usually not very difficult to get most of them in the run. There are only a couple who are wise to my tricks! Lol! But they go in after a little while to be with their friends.

 

[ShockValue]

I'm feeling pretty lucky.. Or perhaps a little homework paid off. Probably a little of both...

Anyway, we're on our first bunch of chickens. 4 Faverolles, 1 Sussex and a (suspected) Wyandotte rooster.

At week 8, I put them in the coop. For the first couple of days, locked down tight. Next couple of days, I let them exit the coop into a small 5x8 cage via their coop door.

They've been free range 14 hours a day since.

It's dark here about 9PM. About 8PM I see them starting to wander into the coop (sun is getting low in the trees by this point). I put the kids to bed. By 9PM I go down to close the door and they're all on the roost. They're mostly awake and eye-balling me so I'm not sure if I wake them up with my approach, or they're just still settling in.

Secretly I'm still waiting for a big problem, because up until this point they've all been playing by book.

 

[mortie]

Mine go to bed at about dusk.

 

[Smiling Angel]

Funny story - when our chickens were young, we usually let them free range around our large yard, and we usually get them back into their coop before dark. One night,we forgot to get them back to their coop - we do the 'pied piper thing' - they follow us as we throw them bits of bread. WELL, on this night, it got dark and they hadn't learned to get to their coop before dark. We went out to find them scattered around the yard, and had a really hard time getting them in their coop (we didn't realize their eyesight was bad in the dark!) We ended up picking up each one to return them to their coop. It was really quite a sight seeing us rounding them up!

Now that they are older and 'wiser', they always go back to the coop before dark on evenings when they are still free ranging. I guess they learned something from that one night, and so did we!

 

[chicksurreal]

I'm feeling pretty lucky.. Or perhaps a little homework paid off. Probably a little of both...

Anyway, we're on our first bunch of chickens. 4 Faverolles, 1 Sussex and a (suspected) Wyandotte rooster.

At week 8, I put them in the coop. For the first couple of days, locked down tight. Next couple of days, I let them exit the coop into a small 5x8 cage via their coop door.

They've been free range 14 hours a day since.

It's dark here about 9PM. About 8PM I see them starting to wander into the coop (sun is getting low in the trees by this point). I put the kids to bed. By 9PM I go down to close the door and they're all on the roost. They're mostly awake and eye-balling me so I'm not sure if I wake them up with my approach, or they're just still settling in.

Secretly I'm still waiting for a big problem, because up until this point they've all been playing by book.

Sounds like your chickies know what to do !

We raised ours from day one in the coop. We partitioned it off when they were babies and then slowly introduced them to more of it as they got older. We let them out into the run a couple of weeks later. They've been free ranging for a long time now and know that the coop is home, but Hamburgs are very, um, free spirited. Lol!

 

[chicksurreal]

Mine go to bed at about dusk.

So, I'm beginning to think our Cuckoo Marans roo is a little odd for going to bed way before dark. Hm.