My chicks refuse to sleep in their coop

[aemoody]

Is this normal? I have seven chickens two 10 wks and the others 3 wks. Our coop and run are both very secure. The past few days when I go to put them up in the coop at night they come running out. They just want to roost in the run. We live in New Orleans so I am not sure if it is to hot or what but is this normal? Or ok?

 

[cluck-cluck]

Hi, usually, you have to confine the birds for at least a week in the coop so that they think of it as their safe home. If they spend all their time in the run, that becomes their space. I don't know if this will now be harder to achieve now that they think of their run as home, but you can try it.. If, however, your coop isn't well ventilated, you'd better be careful that it's not too hot in there

 

[Rnbwbrite1207]

I had this problem also. My chickens lived in our garage while we built the coop. Once it was done they wanted to go into the garage at night instead of the coop. Every night I would wait for it to get dark (when they would calm down and not fight me) then put them in the coop. It took about a month of that before someone suggested to put a small light inside the coop. ( I used a tap light) just before it started to get dark each night I would turn on the light. As it got darker they would move towards the light in the coop associating light with safety. Then I would wait till dark and turn off the light. After a week of that they go into the coop on their own every night to sleep. Unless I leave the garage lights on.

 

[aemoody]

Tks.

 

[whambam]

I've heard locking them in even for 24 hrs works. I didn't do that, and a month later they've been going in at night no prob.