Protesting hens. What in the world?!

[senickell]

Ok so this is going to sound strange: my husband and I recently added two younger pullets,the woman says 4-6 months old, to our current flock, two 10 month olds. We have them in a kennel to keep them separated while they adjust to each other, and the older ones normally just free range and pay them little mind. However, for the first time since they started laying, one of them has had an off day, and both of them are roosting in my husband's sawhorse at night. We physically have to put them in their coop!! We are guessing it is because the 2 new pullets are beside their coop and they don't like them in their space, but is this really the case?! If so, will this phase pass? We normally close the coop at night after we get done with dinner to keep critters out, but these past 2 nights we have had to corral them in! They are like children I swear! The little's seem pretty carefree about the whole thing, but we are trying to figure out how to get past this phase and when to let the babies out with the big girls? Any ideas?

 

[Den in Penn]

More likely they just thought that the saw horses were a better place to rooster. It is possible that the kennel itself takes too much space for their liking, if the coop is small. When you finish the integration and the kennel is removed if they still are trying to roost outside you may have to lock them in for a few days to retrain them.

 

[aart]

How big is your coop(feet by feet)? Pics would be good.