my chickens dont seem to go to sleep....they party all night!

[YoDaT]

Hello, my four pullets are about three months old and I'm confused by their nighttime behavior! They do go into their coop at dusk and I shut the door to the run.

They all just sleep on the floor (not piled up - its too hot for that I guess) so I have been going out to see if they're still doing that, I have been waiting for them to get up on their roosts! They explore the roosts during the day, why won't they go sleep up there?

The strange thing is, they are never just sitting and sleeping when I go check on them! I sneak up on their coop at various times (anytime about 10pm - up to 1am) and they are usually awake! Sometimes even walking around. Last night I heard a couple of them clucking at about 11:30pm. I thought chickens were supposed to get all chill at night and very still and sleep. Are my chickens having some sort of problem that is keeping them up, or is this just part of their normal night behavior?

Thanks for any info!

 

[Mak]

Some of it could be your disturbing them, no matter how quiet you think you are being. I know when I've had to go out to the coop at night, they all get up and cluck and move around, watching what I am doing there. We also have a camera in the coop, and if I pull it up at various times during the night, they are moving around, changing position on the roosts, jostling each other. I don' think they just settle down and stay still all night.

As for using the roosts, they will when they are ready. I worried about mine, too, for a while, because they would all just sleep on the floor. Eventually, they started climbing up the ladder on their own and settling on the roosts. Now, I have 3 who will climb up to the roost, then fly to the ceiling rafters to sleep. They'll use the roosts when they are ready, most likely.

 

[FriesianGroupie#1]

I have somewhat of an opposite experience with my 4 chickens( 12 weeks today!)! We have a massive run that they run around in all day. Every night about 9pm i lock mine up in the coop. every single time i go to close them up, all four of them are snoozing and sometimes their little heads and necks are dangling out the coop door! I open the egg doors and look inside and they are always sleeping. I do wake them up when the flashlight shines on them though! I guess the light scares them because they start complaining! we have 2 girls and 2 boys and all four share the same nest box! Its totally adorable! Sometimes, the rare occasion, they are roosting sleeping on the 'broom' roost we made in the coop! An added plus with the broom is that they love to rub against the broom bristles!

When we first put them out in the coop, we would have to chase them into the coop and they would cluck and chatter for about an hour then settle down. We live wayyy in the sticks, so the quiet of my horses chewing on their night hay lulls them to sleep!

I think that your chickens are just milling about,but i would double check that no raccoons or dogs or the like are sniffing around, my chickens start squeaking when my dogs get close to the fence, even though the dogs are in their own seperate run!

Shereena

 

[aduplantis]

Chicken Apnea ?