Pullets won't come out of the coop

[Trish1974]

I've had my 5 girls for about a month now. Had the same daily routine ever since. I wake them up around 7;00 with a dim light, put food and water in there, go to work, and around 9:00 my husband lets them out into their run. I woke them up at 7:15 this morning, watched them all jump down from roosting and go to their food and water. I have the day off, so I went out at 9:00 and opened the chicken door to their run. No one would come out. They would stick their heads out and look around, then go back in. My husband said they are usually running each other over to get out. I looked all over the barn, around their coop that is in the barn, and all along the run and their is absolutely no signs of any predators visiting that could have scared them. The weather is fine. I tried coaxing them out and nothing. Should I just not worry about it and let it go since they all seem to be eating and drinking just fine? Should I force them out? Or are they doing this because they somehow know I planned to deep clean the coop today?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

You've already thought of the reasons I would consider.... weather and predator. But they probably KNOW you wanna clean today.

I would probably just let them do their thing. The sun is coming up a little later here and everything else falls in line.

Just keep your eyes open for other unusual behaviors. I'll check back to see if you figured anything else out, as I would like to know as well.

Good luck!

 

[Trish1974]

Well, worrying got the best of me, so I took a bag of dried mealworms and my lawn chair out to the very end of their run (about 30' from the coop). I shook the bag and called "chic chic chic" like I do daily indicating I got the good stuff, and they looked out the door for about a minute, then one gingerly came down the ramp, followed by 3 others. They cautiously approached me and when they got about halfway to me the buff orp came flying out straight towards me, jumped on my lap and tried to take the bag out of my hand! LOL I hand fed everyone for a few minutes, then let them forage around me, when they looked like they were headed back in I gave them more mealworms. Everything is back to normal now. I have no idea what the problem was. I thought chickens would be less drama than horses...guess not!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Less drama!