Moving to a new coop - Tips & Recommendations

chanceitup

In the Brooder
May 30, 2020
27
2
33
As the title states, I am moving 10 chickens from their existing coop to a new one. I've read online a handful of times about locking them in the new coop for three or more days, but that seems excessive.

Any tips and/or recommendations about moving a flock to a new coop?
 
Will they free range or will you keep them locked in a run? How close is the new coop to the old, in the same run? Are they laying so they also need to relearn where to lay? Are there already other chickens in the new coop so you will be integrating? How many chickens and size of the new coop (how crowded will it be)?

There are a few different things to consider. The more you can tell us about what you are working with the better we can answer.
 
They will continue to free range as they have. They're going from a smaller house that is currently next to the new one. I'm looking at what I can do with it in the interim, but until I possibly figure it out or put a tarp on it, it's rather close. It does have a door, which I was thinking of closing as a way to get them to the new one.

No, they're relatively young hens and haven't laid, and by the looks of it won't be this year since it's already starting to snow.

This will be a new coop for them, which is a mix of 10 hens and 2 ducks. The new coop is a 7x8 shed that I just finished building.
 
So you do not have a run you can lock them in but the old coop is right next door. They are not laying so you don't have to worry about nests. They free range now so I assume they return to the old coop on their own at night. This should not be too bad. I will mention I don't do ducks, I don't think they present any bad problems but I have no experience with them.

The coop is big enough that you can lock them in there for a few days if you want too. You can go that route if you wish, it could help, but I don't think you need to. What I'd try is to wait until dark and move them from the old coop to the new one, locking them in the new one so they can't leave. You probably do that for predator protection anyway. Lock up the old coop. The next night they may move to the new coop or they may try to sleep next to the old coop, maybe on top. If it is pretty dark they should be easy to catch. A security light might make that harder if it is not that dark there. Every night at dark I'd move them into the new coop until they start going in on their own. I don't know how long that will take. I've had some go into the new coop after ne night, a couple have taken three weeks before the las ones got that message.

If you have trained them to come when called (using food to train them) you can lure them into the new coop fairly late in the day and lock them in there. If you do this consistently they will learn to sleep in there. I don't use this method because I would not know when I could stop, that they have learned to go in on their own. But it may work better than catching them after dark.

Or you can just try locking them in there for a week and see if that does the trick. That could be pretty easy.

Good luck. Let us know what you try and how it works.
 
Is there any universe in which chickens will move into a nearby (and far better) coop on their own? Seems like in nature their ancestors must have made that calculus occasionally. I'm totally fine with locking them into their new house for several days but I'm super curious whether they might do it on their own. E.g., if I seeded the place with mealyworms, etc., and they explored it.
 
Is there any universe in which chickens will move into a nearby (and far better) coop on their own? Seems like in nature their ancestors must have made that calculus occasionally. I'm totally fine with locking them into their new house for several days but I'm super curious whether they might do it on their own. E.g., if I seeded the place with mealyworms, etc., and they explored it.
Habit seems to overrule any logic.
 
I'm sure that can happen. I had that happen to me once, sort of. I had a bunch of chicks probably around 8 weeks old sleeping in a shelter in the run after the broody hen weaned them a and left them on their own. I was late locking them up as I went to see a play. When I got back those chicks were sleeping in the main coop with all the adults. An owl had gone into that shelter and drug a chick out and killed it. Those chicks never went back to that shelter to sleep. They had a reason.

To be fair, I have had chicks move into the main coop on her own, usually when they were a little older. That was always moving in to join the mature flock, not moving to an empty coop. But most of the time I had to move them.

There are occasions and circumstances they will move, but going from one to another because we think it is better, I'd put that down to not likely at all.
 
I too, hate to lock mine in a coop. But it might make for a bit of monkeying around for a few days. Put them in the coop, late afternoon, let them out mid morning. The old coop you can leave open for one or two nights. Ten to one, MOST of them will go back there, but hey, then you know where they are. Go get them after dark, and put them in the new coop. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Usually by day 3, someone will just go to the new coop... you are almost there, move the others that night, and lock up the old coop. Once someone goes into the new coop, and old coop is locked up, the rest will follow them. I would do a head count for at least a couple of evenings. You might have a few die hards, that will huddle near the old coop, even though the new coop is nicer, but within a few days, they will figure it out.

Mrs K
 

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