I need help, Chickens wont stop roosting on my porch?!

[Georgia Dream]

Hey guys! I have two american game fowl. And suddenly they are roosting on my front porch. Leaving poop all over it in their wake, scaring the cat, and just causing turmoil. I dont understand why they are doing this! They have a perfectly nice lovely coop they used to use it all the time, now for some reason they wont even touch it. I couldnt force them there if i tried, and i did try, picking them up putting them in there close to dark hoping they would just settle down and sleep there.What can i do? How can i keep them off my porch? what am i doing wrong. This is my first time raising chickens, and i dont understand if its my fault, am i not doing something for them properly?
Please help, this poop and mess is driving me crazy!

 

[Dmontgomery]

Mine love the porch too, but we haven't even tried to discourage them. They sleep in the coop but come on the porch to visit us all day long. You have to make the porch less favorable for them somehow. Spray them with a water hose or close off whatever area they are using as a roost. Temporarily hang a bed sheet or something up so they can't get up there. Clip their wings if they are getting in the rafters. You gotta be firm with them but not mean to them. Good luck.

 

[Georgia Dream]

Mine love the porch too, but we haven't even tried to discourage them. They sleep in the coop but come on the porch to visit us all day long. You have to make the porch less favorable for them somehow. Spray them with a water hose or close off whatever area they are using as a roost. Temporarily hang a bed sheet or something up so they can't get up there. Clip their wings if they are getting in the rafters. You gotta be firm with them but not mean to them. Good luck.

thank you for your help! I will have to get out one of those small water guns that are for little kids and squirt them with it, so they dont get soaked but its enough that they think "maybe i dont want to be up here" lol thanks again!

 

[aart]

Grab them off their porch roost well after dark and lock them in the coop....leave them there for a couple days to 'rehome' them to the coop.

Meanwhile ..think about why they are not roosting in the coop.
Was there any changes made to the coop?
Was there a predator intrusion in the coop, maybe at night?
Bugs in the coop(mites)?
Is coop too small?
Not enough ventilation?

More info on your flock(ages and genders) and coop(dimensions) would help....pics of coop always help.

 

[chickens really]

Really?......They will need to be retrained to the Coop and Run.......Lock them in for 10 days and then they will think of it as home again.....They will all head back home to roost in the coop....

Cheers!

 

[centrarchid]

I have had ample experience relocating roost sites with chickens. Chicks will follow mother. Juveniles and hens will follow harem master. Young birds in general can be imprinted to new locations by confinement for at least three days in desired locations. Adults of most breeds take a little longer. American Game hens can recall a preferred location even after 2 years of confinement elsewhere. You can get even the strongest recallers to change sites if they are disturbed in a big way after dark.

 

[aart]

I have had ample experience relocating roost sites with chickens. Chicks will follow mother. Juveniles and hens will follow harem master. Young birds in general can be imprinted to new locations by confinement for at least three days in desired locations. Adults of most breeds take a little longer. American Game hens can recall a preferred location even after 2 years of confinement elsewhere. You can get even the strongest recallers to change sites if they are disturbed in a big way after dark.

Another good reason to move them well after dark.

 

[centrarchid]

Disturbed

 

[Georgia Dream]

thanks for all the suggestions guys! I hope i can get them back in their coop!

 

[bobbi-j]

thanks for all the suggestions guys! I hope i can get them back in their coop!

You can. You are the human. You are smarter than a chicken. It may take time and persistence, but it's doable. I would lock them in the coop and run for a week or so to try to get them to rehome to the coop.