ok, that was ridiculous! update!!

[GrannySue]

I'm about to go through the moving process. Probably next week. My son has built me a new henhouse because the current one really is too small to keep all the chickens and ducks in. (Plus, now I'll be able to get more chickens! Heh.)
My old retired girls are so used to their present house but I have a plan;
I'll wait until they're settled in for the night, then move them onto the new roost in the new house. I'll put a couple of duck eggs in the new nest boxes for the morning.
Next day when I let the ducks out I'll close up the old house again so the 4 layers can't get back.

Hah! I made that sound so simple, didn't I?

 

[scooter147]

Grannysue
When I had my current henhouse built I tore down the old one the day the new one was ready.
I didn't have the new run built yet so they were free ranging. So come roost time I go out knowing it was probably going to be a challange getting them into the new house. Well a challange was a understatement.
When I first went out about half of my hens were on the old run fence roosting, I would have not bet a dime they could even get up six feet but there they were. So I was able to pick a couple ofF the fence and then the race was on. My chickens have always been a very docile group, generally have never had a problem catching any chicken I have every owned.
I don't know if was the fact that their house was gone or what but I was completely tuckered out after chasing 30 hens around an acre of property.
It took about three days before they stopped going to the location of their old house and went into the new house on their own.

GOOD LUCK!!!

 

[cmom]

Quote:
How old are the birds? I switched mine around for a week I put my hens in the pullet's coop and the pullets in the hen's house. After a week I let them all out together to decide which coop they wanted to roost in. Most went into the hen's house. After a week of letting them decide for themselves which coop to roost in, I closed off the pullets coop so they would all have to roost in the hen's house. There was some squabbling at first but nothing serious. I did this when the pullets were about the same size as the hens.

 

[karl lutz]

I learned the hard way that chickens are almost immoble after dark. I almost got in shape running around the pen to gather them until I decided to let nature take its coarse. my coop is on stilts so i would let them all gather under it after dark and just more or less scoop them into a carrying cage to put them in the coop. Now they all just gather in the coop by dark. Life is much better now.

 

[lalaland]

thanks for all the suggestions! I am going to wait til it is darker, but not much since I don't want them to roost in the pines, in which case I wouldn't be able to reach them.

I am just hoping the big girls will let the pullets into the coop - right now the big girls won't go into the coop if the pullets are out and not sectioned off.

send some patience my way, am going to need it!

 

[b.hromada]

Oh my gosh, that is just to darn funny! I bet though, it was extremely frustrating to say the least. I sure hope for you, that is goes much smoother tomorrow.

 

[lalaland]

ok, so tonight I waited to nearly dark and when I went out there, the hens were pacing and the chicks were pretty frantic. I pulled up a chair and sat at the end of the ramp (the chicken entrance is about 4 feet off the ground, so it is a lonnngggg ramp). Here come the chicks!

In about 3 minutes, ALL of the chicks are on me, chirping in distress. They knew they should be inside. One will hop off and start up the ramp, just as a hen starts for the ramp too - stalemate, the hen makes a run for the chick, the chick screeches and backflails back to me.

I finally get the chicks to settle down (on me, my neck, my arms, my chest, my lap....) and let the hens go in - so then the hens are all in the coop. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to stand up and get all 6 chicks in, but I sort of gather them up in my arms like a basket of laundry and bring them to the hatch - they go in, I shut the door and hurry around to the people entrance. The hens are screeching and caterwauling in outrage.

I go into the coop and it is like a circus - there are chicks falling off the roosts, two are trying to make it onto the big girls roost while the hens defend their roost by pecking, one chick has herself wedged behind a nest box - I'm picking a chick off the window screen (!) when one flies to my shoulder, and then another, and then there are 4 chicks on me, I've got one I'm trying to settle on the roost, and another has made it to the big girls roost and settled in against the wall in a dark corner- the hens are too distracted by the flying missles to notice her.

takes only 15 minutes and a long repetive process of removing a chick from my neck or back or under my hair, and settling her on a roost while the one on the roost lands on my other shoulder, it is so silly I am just laughing - I feel like a christmas tree with ornaments hanging off me all over! It is like a serious case of static cling - those little fuzzballs just keep coming back and thank god it gets darker and the chicks start not flying back up on me. god help me if I had more than 6 chicks, I don't think it is possible!

I leave the one on the hens roost. I don't know whether it got dark enough that the hens didn't notice, or if they just didn't care. Funny thing is, the one on the roost is the one with duct tape ! (see my posts on bloody tails and feather picking)

anyway, 2 nights down, I figure 6 more to go til it settles down.

waiting til it was darker definitely helped.

 

[Theda's Mom]

I love your descriptions! Priceless!

 

[cposz]

Our two hens didn't really want the two pullets in their house either, but they are fine at night - probably because they just want to go to sleep. Though the pullets are very nervous in the henhouse with them, they stay put until morning.

It's only been a couple of nights, but the pullets won't go up into the henhouse on their own. We have to pick them up and put them in.

Hoping they will soon go up to the henhouse on their own - and glad we don't have any more than 4.

 

[19hhbelgian]

Here's what I do... i have a large dog crate (the metal kind, not a plastic one) that I put in the coop. When the chicks are old enough, I put them in the crate. During the day I'll let the older girls out, and close the door to the coop and let the newbies out to roam the coop. I do this for a few days, and then let the chicks out with the door open to the coop. They generally stay in the coop the first day, then venture out but stay close the second day. Then hens don't bother them at all (just normal chicken stuff) - the big girls have gotten used to seeing the chicks in the coop, and they apparently can't tell the difference between inside and outside the crate

This has worked every time so far

(knocking on wood!)...

Also, LOVE your story telling - very captivating!

Sounds like you have everything under control now