rounding up chickens

[Buckguy20]

If they are young, you can leave a light on in the coop and they will usuqlly come to the light when it starts getting dark. The hook and pole thing doesn't work very well on small ones but it works well on adult chickens if you can get close enough. I have never hurt one using it.
A net works better, again, only if you can get close enough. Less room for error with a net.
Monty

 

[banditgin]

they are about 3 months old.

 

[wendy]

Quote:
we bought ours at about four months old from a local guy. we let ours start free ranging about three weeks ago for the first time. i was scared of preditors (fox, stray dogs, coyete). but my husband let them out around 3 pm and they came on back to the chicken yard and got in the hen house to roost! so cool how they know to do that

now they like to try to get out early to free range and i don't want them to do that till i am ready because some days i have errands and don't want them out without me being there.

but the net came in handy before that when some flew over the fence that is taller than me and i am 5'7. the guy we bought ours from used a fish net, so that is where we got the idea from.

 

[devora]

Ours are 13 wks and I cannot imagine depending on rounding them up to make them safe. They are so fast! It also seems unnecessarily stressful since chickens will go to bed on their own if trained.

Like Poison Ivy said, stick ‘em in a coop for a week (or two!) and don’t let them out.

Then begin letting them out close to dusk and they will go in on their own. As they get used to putting themselves to bed you could let them out earlier and earlier.

Good luck w/ it!

 

[babychickfarmer]

Don't get leghorns they are the most skiddish and fast chickens I ever seen. Not great for free ranging

 

[rooster-red]

Quote:
I agree with that!

I have one we call road runner that acts just that way.

When she runs she sticks her neck out as far as she can and drops her tail feathers so that her head and tail are at the same level with her back, and she's the fastest runner I've seen in a while.

Looks just like the cartoon.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Mine come and go from their run all day long. I have the door of the run set so that it is just wide enough for my largest to get in and out of. I don't think the neighbors dog can get in there. (If he did, he wouldn't be able to get out) Most days they are back in by 6. If not, I open the "treat box" and they come a running!

I've only been doing this since April, it just takes time and a little patience for it all to come together

 

[rooster-red]

If I want mine in before sundown most are easy to "shew" in.

There are a couple (Aleghorn & a hamburg) that I usually have to catch.

When it comes to catching them I don't use anything but my hands, you just have to outwit them and use the surounding object to manuever them to where you want them and once you do that you have to be fast and not give them time to think about an escape route.

 

[silkiechicken]

My birds put them selves to bed at night after free rainging. I found that as long as you have older dominant birds gong home, any younins that you are graduating to the big coop will follow. As for leghorns. Yes They are the MOST flighty buggars in the world!!!

 

[GoodEgg]

I hope I'm doing the right thing then. Mine have only been in the coop a few days, but they love being out so much they will often escape when I come in to feed them. Once somebody pushed the door open when my back was turned and they ALL ran out.

They already seem to have the idea that the coop is where to go. I use a long pvc pole that I use to direct my ducks when they don't want to be put up. I usually just extend my arms to make a "wall" and they see the length of pole and slowly head the other way. Sometimes I place it in front of them before they run past to direct them the other way. They aren't afraid of it or anything. (Some will run past or even into it.) Most of them can be directed in this way. I have to catch a few too, and use my hands. Usually I let them get against the side of the coop and just scoop them up before they can figure out how to get away.

I was worried the pole might not be a good idea, but it was like magic with the ducks, so I tried it.

(The ducks run faster when I hold it though, so I'm a little worried they might be afraid of it. Fortunately they put themselves into their little coop around nightfall almost all the time.)

trish