Ok, thanks that does sound good. what kind of “night light” might you recommend? We don’t have power reaching to the coop. The coop is enclosed in a large omlet chicken run which is impenetrable- my only concern is that the raccoons climb on the run at night, and I am afraid they will reach in and grab on of my babies while their sleeping. I am certainly not new to chickens and I would never let them stay out at night, however their coop run is quite safe (other than the crawly raccoons who can’t actually get in, I have not had an incident in two years, and the last time it happened was with the old run and coop)and I don’t feel a need to lock them inside the actual coop at night. my 3 old hens had no issues when learning to go in the coop- they actually started to go in by themselves. I’m going to take the branch out so that the babies can’t keep roosting on that, maybe that will encourage them to go in in their own.
Once again, do you have an idea of a good nightlight?
our coop is a snap lock coop- certainly not a good size for my 7 girls although my parents do not want to buy anything more so it’s what we have to work with.
A battery powered lantern, or even just a flashlight, will do the trick. Once they’re settled in, remove the tight or turn it off. It took mine all of 2 nights to get the hint, and now go in without the light.