My chickens don't like my coop! What am I doing wrong?

[21hens-incharge]

Thanks for the replies. I'm pretty sure they don't have a lice/mite problem anymore. The bald spot regrew new feathers and they are no longer scratching their heads. What do you think?:
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This is exactly what my gut is telling me to do.



what?

The other thing is, the food gets on the ground around the feeder, and this just turns to mold. It happened on the ground out in the open, with plenty of breeze. So I feel like I should not have the food feeder in the coop. Same thing with the water feeder, it just ends up on the ground around it and creates damp litter that takes a while to fully dry out.

Sorry.....autocorrect hates me.

It should have read to build a bottom in the coop. A wood floor instead of wire when raising the coop. Easy enough to do. Build a base that looks like a table and attach your coop on top of it.

I agree higher ground is better.

Thinking that it looks like your current roof is hinged for cleaning.....am I right in that?
If so you would want to make a side clean out door.

 

[Dead Diamonds]

Why does it have to be a wood floor when raised up? I was planning on just putting the whole thing on stacks of cinder blocks. (It already has a floor made of hardware cloth)

Yes it has a roost bar, and they use it, they sleep on it at night.

The nesting box has a lid I raise up to grab eggs.

When we first brought them home, they would sleep in the nesting boxes. I read that I had to break them of that habit so I closed the door to the nesting boxes at night, forcing them to sleep on the roost bar. After just a few nights of doing this I no longer had to close the door to the nesting boxes anymore. On really cold nights they would sleep in the nesting boxes and then the next night they would sleep on the roost bar like good little chickens without me having to close the door to the nesting boxes. (There is a little door at the top of the ramp).

That said, I'm starting to think what happened is when it got nasty, they started sleeping on my raised deck on the coiled up garden hose, and now they realize they prefer it to their coop - even a clean coop.

My deck pictured in foreground (this was first day we got them, back when we had three):

I've been meaning to put a fence around the deck anyway because it's become the "poop deck".

But they will probably still not go into their coop because sometimes they sleep on the ground next to the AC unit. So if I block off the deck they're just going to huddle next to the AC unit instead of going to their coop.

I'm wondering if I keep them cooped up in their coop all day for many days this will retrain them. They are definitely NOT going to be happy about that - I had them cooped up for half a day once when I did fence repair and they were very vocal about it.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Why does it have to be a wood floor when raised up? I was planning on just putting the whole thing on stacks of cinder blocks. (It already has a floor made of hardware cloth)

A wire floor is hard on their feet and it's tough to keep it covered in bedding. It's also just less secure and stable than a wood floor overall.

Honestly the coop looks small, dark, and lacking in ventilation, and the chickens are "voting with their feet" in choosing another place to spend the night. Ventilation especially is important in keeping the coop interior dry. The mold issues are due to moisture. You also need to keep on top of cleaning out litter so if you're busy or unable to do so, maybe see if family members can pitch in to help out.

I agree with suggestions to try raising the coop (doesn't have to be up high, mine is only 6" off the ground) and adding a solid, stable floor and vents/windows would make it much more inviting to the chickens and should help with the mold issue.

 

[A_Fowl_Guy]

I’d get another coop if you have 3 birds. They need 4sqFt of space per bird so you need 12sqFt of coop, not including run.

 

[Dead Diamonds]

and adding a solid, stable floor and vents/windows

are you looking at the right pictures?

 

[rosemarythyme]

are you looking at the right pictures?

In most set ups the coop is the strictly the enclosed section. I see a few circular holes with hardware cloth on the side. Are there more vents I'm not seeing under the roof somewhere? Or are you saying this is open concept and the solid section is not closed off from the wire section with a wall?

 

[No More Empty Nest]

Forgive me if I'm way off base, but I think you may be referring to the whole run/"house" area as the coop. While everyone else is referring to just the "house" as the coop with the wired area as a run. I think this because when someone asked about a roost, you showed a roost in the outside area, the run. Is the coop open to the run? Or does it have a small chicken door in it going out to the run?

 

[No More Empty Nest]

Lol, I should refresh before i start typing, same thought as rosemarythyme

 

[rosemarythyme]

Lol, I should refresh before i start typing, same thought as rosemarythyme

I'm just confused because there's no photo facing into where there appears to be a ramp leading into the coop to show if there's a solid wall or not. I've seen a number of open concept coop/run combos so not sure if that's the case here.

 

[Dead Diamonds]

I have been confused about the naming of things.

The enclosed section (as seen in my profile pic) is just two nesting boxes and a little rectangle area with bedding for them to wipe their feet before going into the nesting boxes. This area is fine, no issues whatsoever here. Yes there's two holes on each of the 3 sides, a total of 6 holes.