My chickens have started roosting on top of their coop...how can I stop that?

[Indigo a la mode]

Hello! I have four chickens who until last week cheerfully cooped themselves every night, no problem at all. Last Monday, I built them a run, so I moved their coop about three feet and turned it around to protect it a little better from the wind.

Since then, my fool birds seem to have forgotten that they ever lived there. Now they roost in a row on top of the coop, which obviously isn't cool. If I catch them before it's dark, I can lure them into the coop with some feed and shut them in, and then they're happy to sleep together inside as usual. If it's dark, I have to put them in one by one.

Any ideas on how to get them to start going inside on their own again?

Thanks!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

You just have to keep locking them in at night till they habituate to the new location.

 

[Indigo a la mode]

You just have to keep locking them in at night till they habituate to the new location.

So it is just a change thing? So weird...the coop really barely moved! Tonight they were poking around in the coop and I had hope that they'd go to bed normally, but alas, no dice. Maybe we're a step closer...hopefully!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Sometimes there is something uncomfortable about the housing. When one decides to stray, often the others will follow suit.
I've heard of buildings being moved by 20 feet and the chickens then slept on the ground of the previous site.

 

[aart]

Could be the run that's got them spooked.
Do they go into the run at all?

Can just keep putting them up ...or confine them to coop and run for a few days to a week.

 

[ValerieJ]

Chickens don't like change, and especially don't like to change their coop living conditions. We have a really great new coop for my chicks, but I can't get them to use it. They are still going into an old, ready to fall apart, prefab. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get that out of their run entirely, then I suppose they will be having issues too. But I just plan on putting them inside the new coop every day until they get the hang of it.

That's all I know to do. Eventually they adjust.

 

[featherhead007]

They lost their comfort zone, if only a couple of feet. Now they need TLC And re-training.

 

[featherhead007]

Or, Maybe they think they are all roosters!

 

[Indigo a la mode]

Their food and water are in the run, and they seem to like being in there. They perch all over it and such. I wonder if it would help or hurt for me to turn the coop back around so that the configuration is familiar, if not the location?

I figured it was a comfort thing, it's just too bad that it's taking at least two weeks for them to adjust, particularly because I have to leave tomorrow for Christmas week. Hopefully I can get the coop and run attached today so I can confine them to that space and my "chicken sitter" doesn't have to put them into the coop herself. Now if only it would stop pouring!!

 

[Indigo a la mode]

Although the good thing about it pouring is that they're spending a lot of time in the coop today. Hmmm....