I find that my adult chickens go to roost much earlier than the younger ones. Just like kids - they don't wanna go to bed yet!
My "Middles" are now using the same coop as the Big Chickens, and they have learned to go into it before the automatic coop door closes. (It closes a good 30 minutes after all the Big Chickens have gone inside to roost.) The Middles (four 19, maybe 20 week old pullets) don't settle down on the roost right away. There's been quite a bit of chicken-y discussion audible in that coop until the Middles stop futzing around in there.
The Littles wander around in the run even longer. They come in from the yard, but hem and haw their way around the various coops, corners of the run fencing, looking for anything the rest of the flock may have missed throughout the day. Finally, they go roost in the Duck House (which is "their" coop).
The babies in the brand new coop do NOT want to go to bed at all. It's a perfect grow out coop because it's got its own attached run. The babies (5.5 weeks old) have been outside in it for over a week now. They get sad and cheep a lot because all the other chickens which have been around them all day long (especially Buffy and the GrandChick) have gone to roost in their own coops and suddenly they're the only ones outside (safely inside the attached pen). But they do NOT want to go to bed. I have to get into that pen and catch 'em to put 'em up in the coop and close the door.
And the ducks? Those two have taken over the role of Watch Ducks. They wander the property most of the late evening and well into hours of darkness, eventually going to sleep next to each other on my front door's concrete stoop. It's been so hot around here I keep the doors open at night (with security screens locked) and I can hear the ducks mumbling all night long. It's a comforting kind of sound.
But there's certainly NOT the "all the chickens are in bed now" situation I had when there were just the 9 Big Chickens!
