New rooster will not go into coop at night.

[chickenshagg]

At my wife's encourging I bought a young polish mix rooster at an auction a little more than six weeks ago. I kept him isolated from the rest of my flock for four weeks before I put him in with the girls. Being the only roo he was quickly accepted by the girls. During the day he hangs out with everyone and freqeuntly goes in and out of the coop because that is where the food and water are. When I let them out to free range he hangs out with the older girls and when dusk falls and all the girls head into the coop he stays outside on the roost in the run. Every evening either myself or one of my sons have to go out and physicaly put him inside the coop. The other night my son said that he had icicles on him when he picked him up to put him inside. Also he wont get up on the roost inside the coop unless you put him up on it but he has no problems getting to the highest roost out in the run..........So what can I do to get him to go in on his own?

 

[ging3rhoffman]

We took our roost out of the run and all of our girls go in.
If he still doesnt go in then put him on the inside roost
for a few nights...he should catch on. I had 2 hens that
i had to help up on the roost each night, now when i go
out to lock up all the girls and roo are on the roost.

 

[chickenshagg]

We have tried putting him up on the inside roost. If we just stick him in the door then he will sleep on the floor but if we put him up on the roost then he will sleep on the roost all night. But he will not go in at night on his own. I have thought about leaving him out all night but I am worried about the cold weather as well as predators.

 

[cobrien]

I agree with removing the outdoor roost, and would also suggest adding something to make it really easy for him to get up on the inside roost, and also perhaps making the floor less comfortable. My coop has 1" hardware cloth on the bottom, so no one wants to sit down there.

I was having trouble getting my girls to get up on the roosts when they moved into their new coop. I got tired of 'putting them to bed' manually each night, so I added a milk crate below the roost so that they could hop up on it and get onto the roosts more easily. I left it in there for a few weeks and just took it out to see if they can manage on their own without it (it was getting poopy), and voila, they can now get to the roosts without me or the milk crate.

 

[chickenshagg]

Thanks for the replies but I can't remove the flooring since I use the Deep-Litter method and as far as the roost inside is concerned I have it so that there is like a stair step so that everyone can just hop up to the top. I don't want to have to remove the roost from the run since that is where they spend most of their time.