Should I buy eggs or wait it out?

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I need some advice. We have a coop that the girls sleep and lay in that is in their run. We have raccoons that have the ability the get in the run, so at night we lock up the coop and remove the food from the run. It deters the predators, but the raccoons are impossible to keep out completely.

So here's the scenario. My crazy leghorn has decided that she likes to sleep under the stars, so she roosts on top of the coop. Our older EE is kind of the director of the coop, and she roosts with her. So each night we grab the girls, put them in the coop, and lock it up. Well last night, my crazy BO pair was up there too. It's one thing to put up two birds, but 4 is getting out of hand. Any suggestions on how to get them back into roosting inside? They all used to sleep in the coop until December, and then the two started the trend.
 
I've never had that situation savannah, so I'm not much help, but I can suggest luring the birds home with millet. mine would follow me anywhere for that stuff... put them away a little bit early with the seed snack, maybe it will become habitual without the seed enticement... maybe not
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I don't wait for full dusk to put my gang away. too much risk around here. they know when they see the red bucket and the ski pole, it's time to go home. 100% effective.
 
savannahm0m said:
I need some advice. We have a coop that the girls sleep and lay in that is in their run. We have raccoons that have the ability the get in the run, so at night we lock up the coop and remove the food from the run. It deters the predators, but the raccoons are impossible to keep out completely.

So here's the scenario. My crazy leghorn has decided that she likes to sleep under the stars, so she roosts on top of the coop. Our older EE is kind of the director of the coop, and she roosts with her. So each night we grab the girls, put them in the coop, and lock it up. Well last night, my crazy BO pair was up there too. It's one thing to put up two birds, but 4 is getting out of hand. Any suggestions on how to get them back into roosting inside? They all used to sleep in the coop until December, and then the two started the trend.
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I think Cheeka's method will work for you. Chickens will do anything for food! They are also big chickens, and if you were to put something new and scary on top of the coop (like a tarp or some cardboard boxes) it might help deter them. They like to roost up as high as possible, so are your inside roosts up high? Are they nice and wide? (2x4 fat side up is good). Good ventilation in coop? You've probably got it set up perfectly, but maybe the crazy Leghorn is looking to be more comfy.


On behalf of my Leghorn sisters, I would like to remind you, AGAIN, that we are not crazy!
We are energetic.
 
I had this situation with my crazy polish Sophie (she refused to sleep where she was supposed to), when we started out with chickens (2 exbats and her) we had a small coop and run iwhich became affectionately known as the eBay coop. She adored that coop.

When we got the chicks when they got large enough they moved into the eBay coop as it had an isolated run in which they could get to know the others through the bars. The big girls were moved into a much larger and better made coop but at this point they free ranged and Sophie wanted her eBay coop back! How dare these new comers take her home away!

Every night she would fall asleep on top of the eBay coop or as close as she could get to it and I would have to move her, if for what ever reason she couldn't fall asleep on the eBay coop that night she would sleep 8ft high in the bush next to it. Because I couldn't get her down or sometimes find her, when she did that she spent the night in the bush and she quickly decided that wasn't fun so remained sleeping on the eBay coop. Nothing deterred her, I clipped wings, moved her every night. She didn't care, she only thing that stopped her was a physical barrier. Then when we integrated the little girls to make the change easier we kept both coops open to whoever wanted to sleep their. The little ones slowly moved in with the exbats in the nice coop but Sophie remained in the eBay coop - she had missed her home.

When we had losses and lost Sophie we used the eBay because we no longer had enough chickens to warrant the larger one, it kind of feels like it's in her memory x

RIP Sophie xx My mad little hen
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Sophie was a beautiful Polish! It amazes me how attached we get to them and how much we miss them when they are gone. My friend just lost her beloved roo, and we really mourned him.
 

15 Eggs today! got the last 2 just before Chester did, sneaky boy! he squeezed through the opening, I let Penny fly out the hinged lid, but made Chester squeeze back out the way he came.
 

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