Just adopted our Girls... now we have some questions!

[K9Lover]

Hi! My husband, two son's and I just finished building our coop and adopted 6 girls that were born 5/10/10. We are new to BYC and just love this site!!! So much great info! We were wondering when the girls will start using their ramp to go into the coop! We are in Woodland Hills, CA so it's not too cool at night and the girls slept outside all night. We didn't know if they need to be taught to go up the ramp, if there is an age that they will start doing this and if we should get a dog house or something in the meantime for them to sleep in on the ground.
Thanks for any help and advise!

 

[Elphaba2140]

.

I am relatively new here too. I had to teach my "girls" how to go into the coop every night for about 5 days. Then gradually they were getting the idea. It took about 7 days in all for them ALL to go in. Boy, it was kind of hard work since they would hide under the raised coop. It is a great feeling now that they all go in without trouble at dark and are safe and locked down at night! Good luck and again welcome.

 

[ZepChick]

Our chickens put themselves away at dusk right from the start. Except for a couple wobbly Cochins who needed to be picked up since they would roll off the ramp

Welcome to the wonderful, funny world of chickens ! They are amusing and entertaining

 

[K9Lover]

OK... great! But HOW do you teach them to go up the ramp? is there an age that best to teach them or should any age hen's be able to go up?

 

[Darlasmum]

Try walking them up the ramp, one at at time, and give em a lil push thru the door. Try this at dusk. It took my girls 3 days- and then they went solo. good luck and welcome.

 

[MCCmomof3]

I don't know what your set-up is for your coop, but when I moved my 7 week old chicks to their coop...I put them in the coop without access to the run for a couple of days. I put the chick waterer and feeder in the coop with them so they had food and water, but learned that it was their new home. Then after a couple of days in the coop I let them have access to the run. I didn't put a feeder in the run. I left the chick waterer and feeder in the coop and provided a waterer only in the run. This way if they wanted food, they knew it was in the coop but they had to learn to use the ramp to get to it. It took less than three hours for them to figure out the ramp. It was awkward at first, but they got it.