I need to vent...

[TropicalBabies]

Chickens have a way of ruining the best laid plans and dashing the best of dreams. I wouldn't change it for anything and consider it an awesome challenge.

I think we could almost all write a small book on chicken disasters. My chooks first night out the neighbors down the road hunting dogs went into the adjacent yard from me, then over our low fence and bashed the geezers out of my coop trying to get my babies. I stayed up all week waiting for them to come back so I could send them home with a pellet in their butts. I improved my perimeter fence instead and sleep much better now.

My fat chickens don't like ramps either so I put in hops for them and that solved that problem, soothed my ego and nerves. I did reused the ramp for my lower mini coop where it works good for the smart ones. You are just starting out on your adventure and will be an old hand soon enough. Just keep the margaritas and BYC close and be flexible.

I like @rosemarythyme suggestion of making a nice secure run for them and just leaving the coop open. I think closed coops are beautiful but I cant have one myself so I just enjoy a almost fully open coop attached to a good sized secure run. I always leave the coop doors open unless I secure my coop for rough weather. I am an early riser and usually beat my chickens up but i love not having them rely on me or foaming at the mouth (aka making a racket) for me to open up. They just hop out and play.
Give the process some time, it is trickier than we think and many people just give up. So, not super easy and certainly not the BH&G photo op I thought it was going to be when I got into it. I still tinker, make changes and improvements all the time. The evolution is part of the fun now. Maybe Santa will bring you a drill and chop saw for the Holidays!!

 

[PopoMyers]

You said they are 5.5 weeks old, right? We didn't even have a coop built yet for ours. They were still sleeping in a brooding box outside. They will roost on their own and learn where to be safe at dusk. I would build an enclosure to keep the corgis out, and them safe. The wire mentioned would certainly keep your dogs out.
If memory serves me right, our coop/run was located under an apple tree in the summer/early fall. I had a 2x2 board roost in their run as well. Many evenings I would find some girls perched there to sleep. Occasionally some would roost up in the apple tree, which would worry me at first when the head count in the run wasn't all of them. Flashlight to see them in the tree, so there they slept. We didn't have such a secure fence at the time, so I opened and closed the door for them. Eventually, we moved the coop away from the tree, and now they all sleep on the roosts in the coop. No training needed. We have a more secure fenced area so we have been leaving the run door open for them to come and go as they please. There is no door at the top of the coop ramp.

 

[Tonyroo]

You have kind of a long wait for your Wyandottes to lay eggs, my one hen started laying at 31 weeks. When they were 6 weeks I did move them into there coop it had a ramp.
My trick was to leave a night light inside the coop to settle them down. As for the ramp I placed there food inside the coop to force them to use the ramp.
It took about 2 weeks for them to get it down. Then I just moved there food back in the run. I have to say there not the smarts chickens, lol.

 

[oldhen2345]

Thank you so much. MY corgis are 12 and I am fortunate that they are not more ill behaved than they already are lol. I am the queen of boundaries, commands, training, rules...you name it...and the corgis just keep doing what they do (laughing and ugly crying at the same time).

I will think on it and get creative. My last resort is to put up a little fence barrier across an area we have that I could technically keep them in and not have to worry about the dogs getting in. Thank you for the encouragement!

My dog, Penny is part bird dog and can kill a chicken in 3 seconds flat.. I had to put a fence up to separate the dog yard from the chicken yard. She still loves to rush the fence when the hens are at the gate. They play along- they flap and squawk and run about 3 feet back, but return immediately to the gate where she does it again. They really are not afraid of her, but I can not allow her in the yard with them.

 

[LaFleche]

Set up some little light in the coop for them to give them direction and lure them into the coop at dawn.
As chickens are afraid of the dark and it will still be lighter outside in the run than in the coop at dawn, the prefer to stay outside until they get used to the new situation.

 

[Jbird95]

I would add, try not to let them sleep in the egg box. Also I leave the door open so they can go to bed and get up on their own

 

[Bob 1313]

Anytime we move our birds to a different enclosure we end up having to "help" them into their coop at night. They learn. Some take a little long than others though.
Dogs circling and barking can stress and actually kill birds. I would recommend a dog run, either for the dogs to stay in or around the chickens to give them a little more space and security.

 

[Lazy Layers]

Oh you're fun!!! It sounds like your critters have you in the plam of their paw and loving it. LOLOLOL

After reading the comments above, you've been given some sound advice with the 'leave it', 'birds don't like change', and 'they'll figure it out'. I would only add to work with one dog at a time on 'leave it'. It's gonna take several sessions because their 'instinct' has to be overcome (as you well know); the trick is to use 'leave it' BEFORE their instince kicks in. Yes, it's tricky but I've seen trainers do it with our little pit bull and cats. (Not my doing -- the trainer's).

Anyway, at 5.5 weeks old, the birds are still babies and probably not aware that they're supposed to like roosts. Put them upstairs for a couple of days to a week so they'll figure it out; once you see them roost THEN you can let them out. The problem with this technique is that you'll need to put food and water in the upstairs, they'll poop on everything and their Taj Mahal will need cleaning. Back when we had guineas I left them in their coop for six weeks to ingrain in them that they had a home. It worked but it took six weeks; the good news is I use their poop in my gardens so they gave me some highy valued fertilizer.

When you release them, be sure and remove their food from the sleeping quarters. (I take up my bird food every night to avoid mice but leave the water down.)

About opening and closing their door daily. Please tell me that the bottom of your day run is covered with hardware cloth so preditors can't dig their way through the ground. Dogs , opossums, and raccoons all dig but if the bottom of the run is covered with wire, that's not a problem (essentially, their run is a closed, wired box).

Here's where I'm gonna get boo'ed. I leave my birds in their coop at late as noon on weekends because we sleep in. During the summer, the birds stay up past our bedtime but I ALWAYS lock them up at night. They're safe, comfortable, and have plenty of water. Besides, their coop is a 10 x 10 shed -- they have plenty of room.

Winter is coming up so you'll need to keep them warm. Please do NOT use a heat lamp; FIRE is my greatest fear. The best thing you can do is insulate the coop walls, maybe close their window. Keep them dry, away from drafts and they'll be fine. I put plenty of straw on the floor and around the sides. Birds are little miracles who keep themselves warm.

About the dirty eggs. There's only so much you can do. Collecting eggs daily is the best advice I can give, along with checking their nests daily and making sure they're clean. Some of my birds have started sleeping in the nests at night (yes, birds poop allllllll night long) so I'm having to clean the nests more regularily.) I keep disposable gloves in the coop so I can go in with my hands and clean the nests. Yuck!!! But it's my job.

Birds are a lotta work but the joy they give us every day is worth every moment cleaning up after them. Our coop is by our front door (we live in the country and don't have neighbors) so we can enjoy them throughout the day. We have three roosters who protect the 20 ladies and herd them in at night. They are so funny.

Don't fret so much. Chickens are hearty, they'll be fine. Your job is to keep them safe from preditors, feed them, and clean up after them. Your rewards are their eggs and the joy you get from caring for them. Bless you for caring so much.

 

[Bella Dominique]

when we first put our chicks out we hand lifted them into the coop the first 2 nights but the 3rd night we got out an hour after dark and surprise, they had put themselves away. Have you tried letting them stay out a little after dark or is it too cold where you live? We closed off the nest box so they would use that only for laying. We have 2 beagles and I was worried about the introduction. I let the dogs see them when they were in the brooder , though it was still crazy excitement when the chicks were first put outside. I introduced the dogs to flock individually while they were on a short leash. The male could be trusted after about a week. The female I didn’t feel confident though one day I thought she was inside so I let the flock out to forage. She had been asleep and woke when the flock surrounded her which then she was desperate to get inside. I still supervise when the dogs are out with the chickens. We had 2 incidents when an owl and then a hawk came at the chickens that stopped as soon as the raptor realized there was a dog present.

 

[Barbs Brood]

Automatic door closure is a MUST!