So...I have two pens of chicks, side by side, and they have two different ages of chicks (though, at this point, it's not always easy to tell which age is which, unless you are me and know who belongs in which pen). I let them all out to free range, and they will wander in and out of both pens, but inevitably, at night, they are all in the correct pen when I go to put them to bed.
The adults on the other hand, have a coop on the other side of the property. They are also allowed out to free-range, but when I go to put THEM to bed, they are always stacked up on the woodpile and hay that is in the shed with the coop, instead of in the coop itself. Regardless of how long I lock them in the coop for, once I let them out again, they insist on sleeping on the wood & hay. The bad part - this is where the fox picks them off from! So I HAVE to lock them up!
Good thing, though - if I turn on the light in the shed, they dutifullly jump down off of their preferred roosting places and waddle into the coop, almost single file. It's like they're walking the green mile
The adults on the other hand, have a coop on the other side of the property. They are also allowed out to free-range, but when I go to put THEM to bed, they are always stacked up on the woodpile and hay that is in the shed with the coop, instead of in the coop itself. Regardless of how long I lock them in the coop for, once I let them out again, they insist on sleeping on the wood & hay. The bad part - this is where the fox picks them off from! So I HAVE to lock them up!
Good thing, though - if I turn on the light in the shed, they dutifullly jump down off of their preferred roosting places and waddle into the coop, almost single file. It's like they're walking the green mile
