new coop..chickens don't want to use it

[Kuntry Klucker]

Hi all, so I got the new coop/run built and the new girls have arrived. they don't want to go in the coop! the attached run is fairly small and I figured that when dusk approached they would go it as they had nowhere else to go haha. they had gone up the ladder and peered in but that is about it. then they started to panic a bit as it got darker and trying to fly up and against the walls of the run so I figured they were just new and confused. I went in and caught each one and gently placed them in the coop on a roost and shut them in. next night..same thing. only they hid from me under the coop where I couldn't reach them (of course they did) eventually I got them all in there. I let them out this morning and I'm just wondering..will they get with the program? is this normal? do I just keep doing this forever? haha has anyone else gone through this?

Hi, yea at first chicks don't really know about the whole roosting in the coop thing at nigh. If they are not raised with a broody hen to teach them you have to be the momma hen and teach them. Just go out to the pen before it gets dark and put them up in the coop. After a week or two they will get it. Its just part of getting new chicks acclimated to the coop.

I have punched new coops before and moved them into the new coop. Even adult hens need a night or two after their digs were rearranged.

Its a normal chick thing.

 

[Criticalicious]

It took my latest batch of chicks exactly one night in the coop to realize they preferred sleeping on the roosts rather than balled up on the floor, because if they jump up on the roost, they can see out the window. They also had roosts in the brooder to practice on. I think it feels natural for chickens to sleep up high.