How to get free range birds in coop

[BuffetChicken]

YOU ALL ARE MY HEROES! Only 6 minutes on night 3 of our newly implemented routine!
So much better than chasing them. Also, one of them likes to fly up and perch on my shoulder while waiting on the others. I’m not sure if she wants a better view or thinks I’m somewhere she can sleep

I'm late to the thread. Glad you've found something that works!

I've only been keeping chickens for a few months, but I lure mine into the run at least a half-hour before dusk after they've been free-ranging all day. Mine would go in on their own after dusk, but that's too late here and they would be (and have been) attacked by predators if I waited that long. Like others posted, I bring the treats in a bowl, and the chickens recognize the bowl and eagerly follow me to get the contents. They've even gotten excited about my teacup when I've gone outside with it in the mornings. But, I've found that they like some treat variety. It helps to get them inside if they're excited for the 'new' thing, so I alternate between a few different things. And similarly to others who feed at night, the lure treats are the only treats I give them each day. They learn to take the limited opportunity for something good.

 

[JKay98]

Mine go up on their own, even before the sun goes down. My head rooster makes sure everyone is up. He will stay outside the coop and will not go in until all are accounted for.

 

[hambowles]

I think mine must read the paper - they know exactly what time official sunset is, and "go to bed" a few minutes before that. If I go out prematurely to lock them up, it takes a lot more effort on my part.

Where do yours try to roost, if they're not wanting to go to the coop?

Also, do you have an attached, predator-proof pen? If I'm not going to be around at the right time in the evening, I'll lure mine into their pen by tossing in some scratch and then lock down everything but the pop door (which opens into the pen). They'll go to roost when they're ready, and I can do any other little chores when I return.

Yes, you have to confine them to the coop for 10 days to 2 weeks, although some people claim 7 days will do it & then they will go in on their own at dusk every evening.
When I have to leave the house before dusk, I make sure to cut up some tomatoes & lettuce and blue berries mixed with mealworms & sunflower seeds & walk into the coop with my 2 bowls, all the while calling, "chick, chick, chick" and before I know it they are fighting over the treats & are all in the coop. Works every time!
There is no animal more greedy than a chicken...

 

[Ascholten]

I wasn't sure I posted or not so here goes.
Chicken snacks.
Start out by giving them snacks every day or so, and making some sort of tell. Every time it's snack time, have a 'dinner bell' Whether it's you going here chickie chicke, or clicking your tongue, or going ding dong, dinner time, whatever. Make the sound give the treats. Within a week they should be conditioned that when they hear that sound, it's snack time.

Of course don't go overboard with the snacks, and also don't make the sound and NOT feed them, that will nullify any work you did. Within a short time anytime you click, cluck or clack, they should all come running.

Step 2, once you got them reliably going there, feed them by hand, hold it tight make them pick it out of your hand. Might take another week for them to get used to you hand and food, and get over the spooks and eat normally from your hand and not do the peck and run.
At this stage, as they start trusting you a bit more, you may start to see the squatting too. They hunch down and want you to pet them, ruffle their tails, they submit to you for attention. At this time, use that quality bonding time to talk nice to them, pet them, tell them how purty they are etc. Get them used to be petted / touched, and more importantly, picked up. Pick them up and support them, once you got them to a pick up able state, pet them a bit, calm them down, again, purty burd, make them comfy and happy so they enjoy being picked up petted, and perhaps fed a special MY GIRL hand treat.

Now you got them tamed to the point you can pick them up and walk all over with them, and while it's fun, a good bonding experience, mentally and morally healthy for you and your bird, it most importantly, when you have to put them away for any reason, or crate them up to goto the vet or something, by now you can just pick them up, carry them to wherever, and plop them, in their coop, in a carrier cage, bring them into the kitchen for their monthly exam. what ever.

You have earned their trust, and trained them how to come when you need them to come.

My girl got out of the yard the other day and was in t he front lawn when i was mowing, the neighbor pointed and said, you got a problem there. I looked at her and said, hey YOU, you don't belong out here, go back inside NOW. Of course she totally ignored me. I bent over and said, ok If you don't come here right now and give daddy a hug I will paddle your ass, get your fluffy butt here NOW, and made the clicking sound. she came running over, I reached out, snatched her up, and calmly walked her back into the back yard and plopped her down with some mint leaves i grabbed on the way there as a snack.

The neighbor was bug eye horn doggled, like, how in the hell did you get a chicken to come on demand and listen!! it's a CHICKEN!! HOW!! I just smiled and continued on like it was nothing. I could see he was going to be telling everyone this story for the next two days

Back to original topic, hand taming them like this is easy and makes it very easy to manage them in many situations. To get into the coop, either pick up and plop in, or just throw some snacks in and they'll run right in and close the door.

aaron

 

[HeathenHavenHomestead]

My first flock grew up in an outdoor brooder that they weren’t let out of until they were 5 weeks with a fenced in area to free range in. Once they were big enough to keep flying over the fence constantly I started opening the fence for them to free range the whole property.
Once I built them a larger coop I locked them up for 3 days in it before feeling sad at their squawks and let them out.
They cooped up at night no problem.
Since they aren’t full grown (15 weeks and 7 weeks) they still have feed set out every day for them so they don’t really care to come for treats. Locking them in their coop really solidifies their return.

 

[zadok]

How do you get your free range chickens in the coop? I have four that are allowed to wonder around my fenced in back yard during the day, but getting them out to the coop at night is a nightmare. I've tried treats, but now they're on to me...

Once they overnight in the coop they should catch on. My hens are submissive so I can pick them up an put in the coop

 

[Show Sebright]

Then I get new birds I have a door to the inside part of the coop. Every night for like a month or two I shove them all up there and close that door. They get mad at me because I alway put them in right before the sun went down. But now even if they are free ranging with us watching they will go to bed early. We only use the extra door now when CAspaina is laying because Dixie always kicks her out.

 

[The chicken nurd]

I’m late to the thread but here’s what I do (and its kinda weird) I let my birds free range my yard when I’m home for a few hours every day but i usually put them away before sunset
I trained them to come when I call so I don’t have to chase them
I’ll post a video later but I normally walk from the front yard around the the house to backyard where there coop is with a plate of treats while calling them
It’s weird I know but it works and normally I can get all of them in without having to catch anyone

 

[TJAnonymous]

I've had an interesting dilemma around this subject. I had a game hen who was sitting on some eggs inside a storage tub in my barn. She is normally a 100% free range chicken but I had just lost 2 other broodies to a predator so I opted to carefully move her to my predator proof Silkie pen. She and her chicks stayed in the Silkie pen for 3-4 weeks. Finally I let them out to free range during the day. In the evening, I'd open the door to the Silkie run and mama&chicks would go back inside, easy peasy. This went on for another week or two. Now chicks are generally weaned and mama game hen doesn't want to go back in the Silkie pen anymore. At first she would "hang around" the pen and I would just wait until dark to catch her and take her inside. Then she moved back into the barn rafters where she used to stay prior to having chicks. But since she started doing that, her chicks have subsequently been more reluctant to go in the coop as well. They do not follow her into the barn though. They stay around the coop but are simply really difficult to get them to go inside. To complicate the problem, I can't just leave the door open because I don't want my Silkies or other chickens to get out.... I was going to try feeding treats at night to encourage them into a routine. Maybe this isn't a good idea but I was hoping to establish a pattern for them.

 

[1Bigloop]

Mine automatically go in to roost at night. They head to the coop as doon as the light starts changing.
If they aren't there when I'm ready just start the "here chickie chickie" and they come running. My husband says he calls here chickie chickie call and it doesn't work lol. He says he can't do the pitch they think means treats
Sometimes one straggler may decide she's going to sleep in the barn but for the most part it works.
They're teaching the new chicks the routine.