Managing Silkies in the Coop

[SilkieMama21]

Hello All! Very new Silkie owner here. My 2 chickens are almost 3 months old. I just moved them from a friends house to their new coop at my home. I live on Long Island New York. Right now, to get them acquainted to their space, I only have them in the small run that is attached to their hen house. We will be building a large run for them this weekend.

My concern is that at dark, they will not go up into the hen house so I go out there each night and put them in and close the upper door. (we have a lot of predators in our area and I've been afraid to leave them out at night). Eventually will they get it and go up themselves? When I go out in the morning to let them out they are pecking at the door and literally jumping on top of each other to get out. (They do the same thing when I put them in at night).

I just hope I'm not doing something wrong. Any insight and suggestions welcome.

Thanks in advance!

 

[User395221]

Eventually will they get it and go up themselves?

Yes, they'll get used to their new house and they'll go in there. What's their means of access? If there's a ramp, just check that it isn't too steep. You can encourage them to use it by putting some seed on it.

I let 2 of my girls hatch some babies (in my avatar). The babies learnt everything, including how to go inside at night. When my big girls moved to their new house, they would sit out on the verandah instead of going inside. Now, they go inside.

They all learn and adapt. Don't worry.

EDIT: also, your girls are babies, they might need some time to learn that they are safe. When I got 2 of my girls, they were scared of me for quite some time and would run away frightened when I went to their house. They grew and learnt that they were safe. Give it time.