Independent chickens

[humblehillsfarm]

I have also had variable experience. When I put 7 16-week old pullets in with four adult hens, it took a couple of weeks of catching them nightly and shutting them into the coop. Even when they started going in, they just huddled on the floor and wouldn't roost. It took a couple of months before they started roosting. This weekend I put 5 8-week chicks in with the now flock of 13 (a hen hatched two 9-week old chicks). On night one I had to catch them and put them in and on night two they went in on their own AND roosted, despite one bully hen pecking their noggins' pretty regularly. I moved the offending (and apparently offended) hen, but hopefully that'll right itself in a few days.

 

[Doc7]

Here is what I do, works every time for me in one day or max 2:

 

[Folly's place]

As I see it, there are no window openings in that coop, except for the slanted roof area? And there's hardware cloth there, I hope, even though it's not visible in the photo.
How about a window in that hatch, and a big one towards the run, all covered in hardware cloth? It just doesn't look inviting, especially at dusk.
Also, do a roof over that run before winter! Make sure it's built to withstand your snow load too. Chickens hate snow, and you need that entire structure to function as a coop all year.
Mary

 

[rosemarythyme]

My tried and true way of homing birds to a coop is to simply lock them in for a few days, however you will not be able to do this as the coop isn't large enough and possibly not ventilated enough (see below *) to do so.

* I was wondering about the roof as well... is that open to the coop underneath? If so, it needs hardware cloth at least to keep predators and pests out. Or is the top of the coop closed up under there? If so, you REALLY need to add ventilation and light inside the coop.

As to why they're not going in, one issue is the ramp is too steep, I'd move that cinder block down to prop up bottom of ramp to reduce angle. The ventilation/light question above is also relevant here, as a dark or stuffy coop is not welcoming to the chickens.

Also I saw you said you expanded the run, but it's still too small for number of birds, unless you plan on free ranging the majority of the day (1 or 2 hrs will not cut it). Your feeder and water and the perch you added are eating up a ton of floor space in the run on top of that, so you really need to get that stuff off the ground in this case, or expand the run to compensate.

 

[RojoMarz]

Where about in Colorado (I'm also in CO). That coop is going to get really really small in the winter.

 

[Ihavesomechickens]

The run seems a bit small to me. The coop is also a bit tight. I would expand the two, coop probably like another 8 sq feet would be okay, run needs another 50 sq ft at the least.

 

[kqs]

Just a suggestion, but I would also scotch the ramp on a cinder block. It makes the trek up a little easier for the chickens.

We did this tonight and it totally worked! They all walked up on their own. Thanks so much for this tip!