I was too new to do it right

[christineavatar]

I have nine 'old girls' - what was left after the raccoons finally got stopped - and nine young ones. The young ones include a rooster (the one I had was the first fatality) and they are about ten weeks old. They all free range during the day in a large fenced yard. At night the 'babies' go into a large dog crate with a door I close. The older birds go into the coop and I close them in there. When I first put the chickens and chicks together, the rooster made a stand as if he was the boss - the alpha hen explained to him that he wasn't and now they all get along fine. The young ones were sleeping in a large dog crate, too large to fit into the coop door. I have just moved a smaller dog crate into the coop and had to round them up last night to get them into it. I am concerned about tonight. Will I continue to have problems with them getting into the new crate? Have I moved too fast? What can I do to settle them down?

 

[scratch'n'peck]

hopefully the second night will be easier. 2 ideas you could try: coax them into smaller crate with treats or let them go in bigger crate then transfer them to smaller crate once they have settled to sleep.

 

[BrattishTaz]

Chickens just don't like change. I have a divided brooder/coop which my younger birds sleep in. I recently had a water spill in side they usually sleep in right before bedtime so I decided to let them sleep in the other side.

The birds that usually happily jump in when the door is open had to be forced through the other door. They were screaming like I was killing them over this tiny change in routine.

They adjusted in about two days......then I switched them back

..... they didn't like it!

Give them time, they will get over it. A few treats thrown in will make it easier to get them in there.

 

[Gypsi]

My pullets outgrew my plywood brooder, I built them a nice sized coop, and they were still roosting on the sides of that brooder until I took it out of the run. I could move them to the coop when they were asleep, but they did NOT like it.

After I took out the brooder, they spent a few nights in the coop, then I used the brooder base for my run "perch ladder" (4 ft long, 4 or 5 rungs widely spaced, see my page.) Put it in the same place as the old brooder used to be, and they have no problem getting up there at night. They haven't slept in the coop when temps were above 20 degrees, they go in to eat, hit the nest box and lay, then they are out in the run, and sleep on the perch out there.... (but when the deep freeze hit last winter, the coop was suddenly occupied. ) As a consequence, my coop cleanup involves shoveling under the perch in the run, putting down fresh sand. coop stays clean except for layena crumbles all over the floor. I Practice secure run, open coop except in cold weather.