My girls will not go in the coop at night

[mamascarlett]

Hi, I just started my flock this spring. I have 9 right now, ranging from 5-7 months old. I have a coop that has a good size run, a ramp up to an indoor protected coop area with boxes and roosts, and under the coop there is a run area too. At night they all huddle together in a cozy pile under the coop. I am concerned that they never seem to go in the coop. So they're not roosting at all. I also am getting more concerned about predators, and wish they would start heading into the coop. Plus when laying time comes, are they going to know to go up there?
Help this first timer Thanks

 

[Ridgerunner]

What you are seeing isn’t that unusual. Mine often like to sleep in the run under the opening when I first let them out of the grow-out coop and into the run. I think the coop being elevated has something to do with it. I never have this problem with my main coop, which is on the ground.

They are old enough they should be going into the coop at night. You are going to have to train them. After it is fairly dark pick them up and put them in the coop. Once it is dark it is pretty easy to just pick them up. Sometimes they get the message after only once or twice, sometimes it can take weeks, but eventually they should start putting themselves to bed on their own.

How light is it in the coop section? Do they have enough light to see to put themselves to bed? A window should be enough. Sometimes the coop gets pretty dark before the outside is dark enough to tell them to go to bed, especially if you have lights on outside. They cannot see what they are doing inside. It may help to add a window or even put a small dim light in there on a timer for them to go to bed by.

 

[snow5164]

My husband went outside at dusk and called the chicks inside(from in the coop with a light on) he then shut the door and placed them on the roost (and turned out the light)for three days and by day four they all hopped up the ladder and squated together , except one who took six days to get it. Now after two weeks of " training" they are on the perch when he goes out to check . They are truly creatures of habit.

 

[azygous]

That's precisely the way I train young chicks to go into the coop at night. You just call them in or show them treats to tempt them in, and in just two or three nights. they'll be doing it on their own.

I've had problems in the past with older chickens not wanting to go into the coop at night and found it was due to it being much darker inside the coop than outside, and chickens are very reluctant to go anywhere they can't see what's ahead. A night light solved that problem, but installing a window solved the problem even more since it helped the hens see when they needed to find a nest to lay.

Another reason for chickens to be reluctant to go inside to roost is space. If the coop is too confining, or there isn't enough perch space, they won't want to deal with it and they'll rather remain outside. If the perch isn't long enough to accommodate the flapping of wings when they hop up and others get knocked off the perch, or if the coop is so narrow that they hit the wall opposite the perch when they hop down, they associate being inside the coop with discomfort.

Some of those "cab-over" coops do lack necessary space so I would examine your coop for these possible problems.