Lonely sleeper

[Farmgirl805]

Hi. I looking forward some opinions/ help. I have 5 pullets who are about 22 weeks old. One of them is a blue Cochin. We call her Scary Terri (Terriyaki) because she’s more timid than the other girls, generally afraid to try new things. She’s also bigger than the other ladies. (Polish, Barnevelder, Silver Laced Wyandotte, Speckled Sussex). Anyway. The other ladies are all roosting together, on a roosting bar that’s pretty high. Scary Terri still sleeps alone in the pre-fab little chicken house that we have inside the larger coop. We put the pre-fan inside the larger coop when the pullets first went outside, but before we started integrating them with the older, established flock that we have.
We have roosting bars that are lower than where the other pullets roost, there’s even I roosting bar inside the little house where Terri sleeps. But she still chooses to sleep in the shavings, on the “floor” of the little house. She’s sleeping where she poops which is kind of a concern. And she’s alone.

Is this a problem, and how do I correct it if I should correct it. We do have a few predator issues although so far not INSIDE the coop.

Thanks for any help, answers or encouragement!

 

[rosemarythyme]

It's not really a problem per se, though I wouldn't want to have 1 bird on the floor in a separate enclosure, for my own convenience. Have you tried manually putting her on the roost at night for a few weeks? I'd also remove/close off the prefab, is there a reason it needs to be there at this point? Once I integrate chicks with the flock I don't give them the option of returning to the brooder/protected area.

 

[Tonyroo]

You should manually place her on the roost when it starts to get dark so she can still see what your doing.

Chickens learn by repetition. You might need to start her off by placing a lower roost bar that she can manage by jumping up to it.

 

[Shadrach]

As long as Scary Terri isn't being isolated by the others and she gets enough food and water, then while difficult to understand, I would let her sleep where she pleases.

 

[3KillerBs]

Have you tried manually putting her on the roost at night for a few weeks? I'd also remove/close off the prefab, is there a reason it needs to be there at this point?

This is one way of dealing with it.

Since Cochins are big girls I wonder if she is capable of flying up to the roost? I had a Brahma who, once she was full grown, couldn't clear more than about 18" of wing-assisted hop (you couldn't really call it "flight"), even when motivated by the thought that someone else was getting a treat she wasn't having part of.

She slept on the floor in the small coop and would have done the same in the big coop if I hadn't put a ramp up to the roost for her.

 

[Farmgirl805]

This is one way of dealing with it.

Since Cochins are big girls I wonder if she is capable of flying up to the roost? I had a Brahma who, once she was full grown, couldn't clear more than about 18" of wing-assisted hop (you couldn't really call it "flight"), even when motivated by the thought that someone else was getting a treat she wasn't having part of.

She slept on the floor in the small coop and would have done the same in the big coop if I hadn't put a ramp up to the roost for her.

I too have an older Brahma and she struggles with getting up to the roost bar. We put a large blue bucket near her roosting area, it’s flipped upside down so she can fly/hop/hopeforthebest to get up to the bar - but they sleep in a separate area so Scary Terri wouldn’t really be using the bucket. We have placed ladders in the coop to assist Terri but she just… doesn’t want to get up on the bar. We have lower roosting bars, but she’d still be alone even if she got up there- although it might teach her the idea. I do like the suggestion of closing off the little “house” so she’ll be forced to try something else. When I’ve tried in the past to move her to a roosting bar at dusk, she panics. I actually think she’s afraid of heights . I’ll keep working with her with these suggestions.

 

[aart]

Sounds like an incomplete integration.
Pics of your main coop and roosts might help garner suggestions.

 

[Farmgirl805]

we do in fact have an incomplete integration. We are working on that. The younger and older gals are beginning to get along better but they still “keep to their own flock” instead of one big happy family. My older gals sleep in our huge pomegranate tree after surviving a few close calls with possum attacks. The roofing to our coop wasn’t the most secure, and my husband did a complete overhaul several months ago before it was time for the younger gals to go outside full time. What with the predators and all the construction, the older ladies decided that the pomegranate tree was much more appealing. So now we have an incredibly secure coop and getting the older ladies back in there for roosting at night is going to be a challenge. We’ll just have to wait for dusk and get to them before they make their ascent and PUT them in the coop.
I did have some success with Scary Terri this morning - we placed some ladders in the coop that lead to some of the lower roosting bars and I found her near the top of the ladder- so that’s progress. I think taking the little house where Terri sleeps out of the bigger coop is a good idea. It was a great place for them when they were little but they’ve outgrown it now.

 

[3KillerBs]

So now we have an incredibly secure coop and getting the older ladies back in there for roosting at night is going to be a challenge. We’ll just have to wait for dusk and get to them before they make their ascent and PUT them in the coop.

This is a useful article: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/getting-chickens-out-of-trees-and-into-their-coops.75511/

 

[Farmgirl805]

This is a useful article: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/getting-chickens-out-of-trees-and-into-their-coops.75511/

Thank you for posting this. I read it when it was first posted and I remembered the “treats for herding them into the coop” part and have actually been using that method to get the little girls to go to bed at a decent hour. The T-pole may be something that gets built this weekend