Moving Coop - Will chickens recognise the new location?

[Lorielus]

Hi all,

Just looking for a quick bit of advice - I've been thinking about moving the chicken coop to another part of the garden (will help keep the wind off them) - the chickens are familar with the whole garden already so the area won't be alien to them.

My question is will the recognise and go to the coop in the new location or will they go to where it used to be and get confused, i.e. will I need to herd them to the new location a few times before they get used to it?

Many thanks as always.

 

[TomZilla43]

Hi Lorielus, how big is your garden? Is the new coop location visible from the old one? I really tend to think they will do fine as long as it's not quite a distance. I had my girls in a chicken tractor last year and decided to build a permanent walk-in coop at the rear of my property, and wasn't sure how they would do. But I carried them back there to it one evening shortly before bedtime and put them in and to be sure I left them in a day or two without free ranging and they adopted it as their new home with no issues. Good luck with your new coop placement, hope all goes well.

 

[Lorielus]

Thanks a lot for the advice.

It's not too big, the entire garden is about 3/4 of an acre maybe and two little coops (one for three chickens and one for two ducks). The new area isn't quite visible from the old one but it's already an area they're spending a lot of time in (we've had some high winds here lately so they've been digging in under a tree there to hide from it).

 

[jthornton]

I did the same thing when moving from the brooder to the coop. Move them at sunset and put them in the coop with the door closed so they have time to get on the roost.

JT

 

[aart]

My question is will the recognise and go to the coop in the new location or will they go to where it used to be and get confused

Could be either.

 

[merrymutts]

Mine were outside in the older coop-ette while shed was being rebuilt. Hope they soon understand that their new digs are now open for night time roosting