Night time in the coop/run

JessChickengirl06

In the Brooder
Jun 29, 2020
47
39
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So I have chicks ranging in ages 5 weeks youngest the rest are 6.5-7 weeks We live in Florida and it’s so hot! Like 95-101 hot. They are in the closed run all day 7am-8pm for a week now and absolutely LOVE IT! They won’t go up ramp to coop not sure why. But perch on ladders and bars in the run (it’s sand and shell and dirt mix). They eat and fly and play and sleep. Then when it gets dusk to dark 1-2 chirp soooo loud! The rest lay down. So we have been putting them back in brooder box at night cause it breaks my heart to see some cry. We turn on heat lamp away from box just to give a light glow for night light and they sleep peaceful all night.
We have the light now facing run and still those few cry. Why do they???? How do I make it stop.
 
I would definitely not use a heat lamp in those temps. They could have been weaned off the heat two or three weeks ago. If you want to add a light, use something like 25 watt incandescent. Heat lamps use sooo much electricity.
They are better off with a nightly period where it is totally dark. Don't worry about the noise, they'll settle down. But unless your run is perfectly predator proof, you definitely need to train them to go in at dusk for lock up.
 
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Chickens, like humans, get better rest when it's dark. Giving them light (or worse, heat, in these temperatures!) is making you feel better, but they truly don't need it and should've been weaned off it 2 weeks ago.

As far as them not sleeping in the coop, you need to assess your coop for common issues. Is it too hot inside (very possible)? Is it too stuffy? Can they clearly see inside at dusk to navigate and get in? Photos of your coop can help us figure it out, if you don't know if there's issues.
 
Are you physically putting them in the coop at night? They might not know it's their home. We had to put our chicks in the coop for a couple nights, then they learned it was their sleeping place. If they are left in the run, or just put back in the brooder box, they'll never learn that the coop is where they sleep. Going to the coop is a learned behavior, not a natural instinct.
 
Chickens don't like change but can be adaptable. It requires patience.

If those chicks have never been in total dark before that is a big change. They can protest. But usually they get used to it in ten to fifteen minutes. That's one possible explanation.

Perhaps they want to go to the brooder but don't know how to get to it. They can be creatures of habit. Not sure how your coop/run are set up. My solution would be to lock them in the coop at night and walk away where you cannot hear them. It will not hurt them, it truly will not. They will not hate you for doing that to them, they will not. They will adapt.
 
Young chickens tend to be timid about going up and down ramps, for some reason. They're new and unusual to them, and they are hesitant to use them to go in and out of the coop. I've read about a lot of people having this issue. Even if the chicks know that they need to get inside the coop for the night, they may not make the connection that the ramp will get them there, or even if they do, they may still be afraid to use it. Mine knew they had to be in the coop, but would stand under the pop door next to the ramp, look up and chirp pitifully, but not actually go up the ramp. For the first several nights, I took each chick, put it at the bottom of the ramp and walked it up - either holding it and moving it up, or letting go (if it didn't try to jump off) and tapping its butt gently to get it to walk forward, until it made it into the coop. I did that with every chick every night for the first few nights, and eventually they figured it out and started going in on their own. I never had any additional light, I wanted them to learn to go by the sun.
 

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