Locking them in?

[Dragonflydore]

Hopefully this is the right forum....

Are 16 week old pullets spent their first night outside in the coop last night, previously we had been bringing them in at night and keeping them in a large dog kennel in the basement.

they would basically bring themselves to the back door and put themselves to bed and definitely associate the house with bedtime.

Should I keep them locked in the coop only for a few days to help them associate the coop with "home"?

The run is not yet done

Pic of my son checking on them this mroning

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Yes, you'll need to lock them inside for a few days. Especially till you get the run finished.
They don't care where they sleep. It just needs to be a place where they safely slept the night before. Without that imprinting, they may sleep in a tree or on a pickup truck.
However, that coop looks pretty small to leave chickens locked in for several days. How many pullets do you have and what is the square footage of floor space inside the coop?

 

[Mrs. K]

Not sure how many birds you are talking about, but I would hesitate to lock them in a small coop in hot temperatures.

What I think will happen is they will go back to where and how ever you collected them to bring them inside. Just put them in the coop then. It will take a couple of days, but by day 3, I would expect them to be in the coop, at least some of them. At the end of the week they should all be there.

Mrs K

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I would also add that they'll need a way to get back up into that coop. It doesn't look easy for a flightless bird to get into. The height of the coop may make it much more difficult for them to imprint on it.

 

[Dragonflydore]

I am.making a ramp right now actually.

The coop has enough sqf for 12 birds according to a calculator i used. Longer than it is wide and well ventilated.

It's not done-done, just safe enough to put them in while we finish up things

I'd rather them free range and they are easy to catch so I think I'll go with Mrs K's suggestion.

I just got all nervous again .With them finally being outside.

Sorry for typos, my screen is cracked!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I understand typos. We're getting used to them.
I also understand the not done-done thing. I've been there.
Well ventilated is a great thing.
It must be quite long. The coop looks to be 3-3.5' wide on the interior. So to be big enough for 12 chickens, it would need to be about 13.5' to 16' long.

 

[Dragonflydore]

Oh and we have six girls, I'll pull the blueprints we used in a moment. We modified the witchita coop from this website.