Moving with chickens, fun times!

[Ms Ellen]

I had to move to a different house at the beginning of May. It wasn't that far away and I intended to move my shed coop with me. Well that didn't work out and the poor chickens were semi homeless, free ranging from dog crates, and of course it was raining so I had to get tarps, which of course flooded resulting in wet chickens. It was not fun times. Finally I got the pen part of my old coop and put tarps over it but no good on getting the coop shed, so I ordered a new shed. The chickens were somewhat happy seeing their old pen and mostly roosted in there at night though we went out every night to round up the chickens roosting in the woods. The real problem was that eggs were everywhere (on 2 acres) and it was a daily egg hunt like Easter. Eggs in plant pots, drain spouts, under bushes, in the woods, everywhere. Finally they started mostly laying in the pen. Yeah! Then the new shed arrived, dropped in the driveway because it was too wet to clear the area where I wanted it. Rain every other day. SO we moved the pen over to the driveway thinking the chickens would know that this was home. NOPE! We were back to the Easter Egg hunt and chickens roosting in the woods again (and one on the front porch which was actually easier.) Finally they learned to go "home" to the coop again and guess what? Three days ago it was FINALLY dry enough to move the shed (and we found eggs underneath it when we did.) So the new shed coop is now in it's own cleared area, yeah! So you would THINK that the chickens could say OH look we have moved our coop over about 100 feet but there is but NO! Once again we are rounding up chickens at night. I wonder how long till everyone finds "home" again. I wonder if they will forget again when I get the run up. Sigh. They are the funniest things aren't they?

 

[Mum]

In your situation, I would be inclined to do two things:-

~ first, put some fake eggs in their shed nest box (sends out the signal that *this* is the place to lay)
~ second, I would fence off an area around their shed and keep them penned in for a couple of days so they *know* where "home" is. With 2 acres of land to choose from for the past 6 weeks or so, they are going to take quite a bit of convincing if left to their own devices.

Hope it works out sooner rather than later for you and your flock.

 

[Ms Ellen]

Thanks Mum! The standard hens are learning but the silkies are not going well. Not the brightest I guess! One of them ran up to us last night as if to say "take me to where ever I am supposed to sleep tonight.