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

[Ashland Oregon]

Put them in each night by hand. They'll sort it out soon enough. Chickens can be really funny about even minor changes.
But, in the meantime, check your coop carefully for mites.
When my girls suddenly stopped wanting to use the coop it turned out I had a hidden infestation of chicken mites. Took me months to be sure that horrid mess was gone for good.

Yes! I cleaned my coop out too, which may have helped. Who knows? They gotta mind to do something, there’s no stopping them.

 

[chickencoop57]

Same thing happened to me only I never moved anything. One of my PR girls (Plymouth Rocks) suddenly started appearing outside the pen in the morning (my girls roam the yard all day). I couldn’t figure it out so I decided to leave the pen door open after their sunset mush w milk and watched from inside the house. I saw her exit the pen, hop up the branches of the fir that towers over the coop, and then settled in on top of the pen. Mind you, she had been nesting at night in the coop for the better part of a year. Since we have raccoons, fox, cougars and bobcats in our yard on a regular basis, I couldn’t let the behavior continue. So after dark, I put on my headlamp, climbed the ladder I left out there near her new roosting spot and got her down and into the coop while she was all groggy. Three times and she was over it. Well that and closing the pen door after they get their snack. My PR girls are total drama queens, always making trouble and breaking the rules. Sheesh.

Lol, I like that about the drama queens!

 

[Indigo a la mode]

I hope this helps, it took my girls and my patients 2 ish weeks for them to get comfortable and learn to roost in the coop not outside. I even keep a diary and log my chickens behaviour, wellbeing, etc so I can look back over the months and years to see how there getting on. Id advise everyone to do it, keeps my girls healthy.

What a great idea! Thanks for your comment, really gives me some helpful detail

When my girls suddenly stopped wanting to use the coop it turned out I had a hidden infestation of chicken mites. Took me months to be sure that horrid mess was gone for good.

Huh - I hadn't thought about that. They haven't been scratching or anything, but I'll look up mites and learn more about them so I can tell if that might be a factor. Thanks!

 

[ValerieJ]

What a great idea! Thanks for your comment, really gives me some helpful detail



Huh - I hadn't thought about that. They haven't been scratching or anything, but I'll look up mites and learn more about them so I can tell if that might be a factor. Thanks!

Red mites live in the coop and not on the chicken, or so I have read.

 

[Peggsblueinc]

Mine were free range and would only go to coop to lay. Then they decided it was to far I guess and started laying where ever they felt like it. So I let them get into the run and closed the door. They still roost in the bushes. Since they are molting there are only 3 that have enough feathers to fly out. So so far they stay inside the run but again roost in the bushes. It cold outside like 30s. I have a heat lamp on inside the coop so far only 3 go in at night. Hopefully one day they will all go in.

 

[ariri30]

Sorry but I always hate to read that. People figure they don't have the skills and the "professionals" do so they buy those coops that hold "up to x chickens" (when in fact they would be suitable for maybe 1/3 that many), made with inferior materials and apparently little knowledge of what chickens really need. Have you checked out the coop building thread? I am certain you could build something bigger and better for less money than was spent on the prefab coop.

Well say. I was one of them till this summer I built my own coop. And we all love it. It’s not perfect but it looks ok. We didn’t have all the fancy tools and used a hand saw a drill and a hammer

 

[ValerieJ]

Well say. I was one of them till this summer I built my own coop. And we all love it. It’s not perfect but it looks ok. We didn’t have all the fancy tools and used a hand saw a drill and a hammer

The coop is very cute, but I don't see any ventilation.

 

[Fairview01]

Pigeon spikes. Rather pricey though.

 

[ariri30]

The coop is very cute, but I don't see any ventilation.

Yes it does. At first I thought it was too much and put some boards on one side under the shingles but I ended up taking them off. So I think they have plenty of ventilation now.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Mine were free range and would only go to coop to lay. Then they decided it was to far I guess and started laying where ever they felt like it. So I let them get into the run and closed the door. They still roost in the bushes. Since they are molting there are only 3 that have enough feathers to fly out. So so far they stay inside the run but again roost in the bushes. It cold outside like 30s. I have a heat lamp on inside the coop so far only 3 go in at night. Hopefully one day they will all go in.

We have a large yard, a former garden, about 40x120 that the hens spend most of the day foraging in. Then we open the gates and let them free-range from about 3:00 in the afternoon on the rest of the property, about five acres of which is good forage. By that time they've all laid their eggs in the hen house (can't get used to calling it a "coop," around here I've been told a coop is something you use to transport chickens in the back of your truck). Anyway, that way it's a win-win. The eggs aren't all over the property and they get to free-range every afternoon till dusk, when they migrate back to the hen house and put themselves to bed. And yes, they always come home to roost because that's where the feeder is.