My chickens are all acting like bad teenagers. They freerange during the day, and sleep shut up in a secure coop at night. Until recently, they have always put themselves up in the coop when it gets dark. Lately, the younger crowd(3.5-5m) has been hanging out outside, staying out late. Just now I went down to close everyone up, and had to herd them all inside so I could shut the doors. Before I even got back up to the house, I heard a giant commotion and ran back down. They had broken down the back door and were all outside again! One chick had gotten himself stuck in the door and was screeching his head off. I freed him and he seems ok. But now there are chickens everywhere!
I would take action to make a more secure door first. Then give the birds two weeks without any freedom to show them where home is. Then start to leave them out with only a couple of hours before sunset. They will surly come home at night if confined for the first two weeks... that is the key to making it work, even if it means cleaning the coop on a daily basis until the 2 week period is up. bigzio
Our chickens did the same thing, we had to put extra security on the door because they banged into it so hard that they broke the hinges Now we also put a piece of wood or something solid across the outside so they don't push through. Good luck!!
Our pullets go back to their tractor as it's getting dark, after a big day of exploring and bug hunting. My DH has moved their tractor so far down the hill, that it's now HIS job to lock them up. You can't see them very well, but you can tell that they went into their tractor. Well, every time he's ready to lock them up, they've popped out again! They go in and out several times, before they decide they're really ready to go to bed! Sometimes, he has to try to shoo them in. He always has a lot to say about all this behavior.
My girls alway go back to the coop at night with no problems. Even the youngsters there is always commotion for the roosting spots but they quiet right down after 5 minutes or so.
Mine do the same thing, i think it because it's so hot out during the day that they like running around during the cool time of the day.
Now we always make sure that our chickens are in the run area before dark so we can make sure our head count is correct.
take some scratch into the pen before you close up, and in about a week, they'll realize they need to be waiting inside the coop if they want to be the first to get to that scratch.
My rooster always herds the flock into the coop at sunset. If a hen defies him, she gets chased around the run until she goes into the coop. Once they are all inside, he lays down right in front of the door and nothing gets past him from inside or out.
Haha, my rooster is hen pecked bad. His girls barely follow him around and they'lll come running to me totally forgetting he watches them all day. I'll be feeding a pile of girs and where's the rooster, still standing on the front porch watchng me from a hundred feet away. Then bed time rolls around and he sits on the roost and just waits for the girls to come in... and then when they do, they all try to sleep between his legs and almost knocks him down a few times. Poor guy. And now the girls are pecking off all his neck feathers!!! I don't even bother putting them to sleep till it's almost dark. They'll just hop down and run out of their run.