Skittish girls

[BigJ111]

Hi,

I have 2 new girls that are now 18 weeks and pretty much the same size than the older ones. They went through the normal 'introduction', spending weeks in an adjacent pen where everybody could watch each over, and slow introduction to the flock composed of 4 older girls. 2 of the older ones have been a bit bullying the young ones at first and have spent a week in 'jail' for it, but the problem is now the young ones are scared to go in the coop at night because they are scared of those 2 in general. They went once on their own but i assume there was some drama inside the small coop and since then, for a week now, i have to bring them inside myself while they just roost outside.

Any advice? Been reading a lot about it, but not in a case where after a week, they still don't get in. Even when the 2 were in jail, the young ones didn't go in the coop by themselves. How can i get them to understand the coop is a safe place? One of the 2 young ones has been very skittish from the very beginning and i suspect maybe she was bullied already as a young chick by the rest of her flock. Thanks in advance.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Hi,

I have 2 new girls that are now 18 weeks and pretty much the same size than the older ones. They went through the normal 'introduction', spending weeks in an adjacent pen where everybody could watch each over, and slow introduction to the flock composed of 4 older girls. 2 of the older ones have been a bit bullying the young ones at first and have spent a week in 'jail' for it, but the problem is now the young ones are scared to go in the coop at night because they are scared of those 2 in general. They went once on their own but i assume there was some drama inside the small coop and since then, for a week now, i have to bring them inside myself while they just roost outside.

Any advice? Been reading a lot about it, but not in a case where after a week, they still don't get in. Even when the 2 were in jail, the young ones didn't go in the coop by themselves. How can i get them to understand the coop is a safe place? One of the 2 young ones has been very skittish from the very beginning and i suspect maybe she was bullied already as a young chick by the rest of her flock. Thanks in advance.

So a total of six birds now?

1. What are the dimensions of your coop? (Just the coop, not the run as well.)
2. How many roost bars do you have, and how long?
3. If more than one bar, are they the same height?

 

[Justagalwithchicks]

We put a barrier between ours. The older girls went in first, so I hand put the littler ones in every night for a couple of nights. After that, they went in by themselves on their side. I put the barrier in which was a piece of chicken wire in a wooden frame. The way my coop is- it worked. After a couple of weeks, I removed barrier at nighttimes and no problems. Some people also hang a piece of cardboard between pullets and hens at night, so no pecking happens. Good luck!

 

[BigJ111]

So a total of six birds now?

1. What are the dimensions of your coop? (Just the coop, not the run as well.)
2. How many roost bars do you have, and how long?
3. If more than one bar, are they the same height?

Yes, 6 birds. We used to have 6 already at some point but in the last year, 2 had to be culled sadly(1 tumor and 1 egg periotinitis).

The coop is a small mobile coop, 120cm wide x 190cm deep and 120cm high inside. Livin in a part of Europe where nice days are not many, and winter quite harsh, they have a summer pen for about 6 months of the year and then move to the greenhouse so they have a nice protected space to roam around in winter when it's contstantly -10 or -15C

1 roost bar E-shaped, main bar being 160cm, but in the past, with 6 adults, they were using barely more than half the roost space, they all snuggle.

All bars are at the same height as I have no option to set it differently.

In a perfect world they would have a bigger coop, bigger pen and so on, I unfortunately have no option currently to do things differently or modify the coop in any way.
It's dark early around 7pm and they wake up around 7am now, i can see by eveyrbody's position and the fact the young ones are not sleeping in the nest box anymore that there's no more drama overnight. The issue is basically that one of the young ones is extremely skittish and the other one just follow the 'lead'. So i'm just trying to get an input from people who have had very skittish girls on how i can help them, and somehow have them go back in the coop at night before it gets too cold and pitch black at 4pm, for their own sake.

The second associated issue is that in the morning, the young ones are last to come out, they take their time, BUT the ex-bullies, usually go back in fairly quickly to lay their egg, so the young ones get panicky and go hide in the nest box instead of just walking around to wards the exit... hence creating unnecessary drama.

 

[BigJ111]

We put a barrier between ours. The older girls went in first, so I hand put the littler ones in every night for a couple of nights. After that, they went in by themselves on their side. I put the barrier in which was a piece of chicken wire in a wooden frame. The way my coop is- it worked. After a couple of weeks, I removed barrier at nighttimes and no problems. Some people also hang a piece of cardboard between pullets and hens at night, so no pecking happens. Good luck!

Thanks. Sadly, due to shape and size of my mobile coop, the barrier part seems very complicated to put in place.
I'm also convinced there is no more drama overnight by now. The issue currently is really a matter of convincing them to get back inside at night...

 

[rosemarythyme]

I'm also convinced there is no more drama overnight by now. The issue currently is really a matter of convincing them to get back inside at night...

Manually put them in, on the roost, once it's dark every single night until they understand that's where they need to be.

 

[BigJ111]

Manually put them in, on the roost, once it's dark every single night until they understand that's where they need to be.

Yes, that's what i've been doing for now over a week. In the past, when i've added new members, it only took 2 to 3 days for them to understand. That's why right now i'm a bit confused by what to do. I don't think they don't understand what they should do (after all they went once by themselves), but i think one of the young ones is so scared of everything that she might be afraid to get in because there was some 'drama' in one occasion (and the second young one is just following her)

 

[rosemarythyme]

Yes, that's what i've been doing for now over a week. In the past, when i've added new members, it only took 2 to 3 days for them to understand. That's why right now i'm a bit confused by what to do. I don't think they don't understand what they should do (after all they went once by themselves), but i think one of the young ones is so scared of everything that she might be afraid to get in because there was some 'drama' in one occasion (and the second young one is just following her)

Since you mentioned there's no modifying the coop or roosts you'll just have to be persistent, though it may take a while as they don't have the option of a separate roost to make them feel more secure in the space.

 

[Fluffy_Butt_Hutt]

Hi,

I have 2 new girls that are now 18 weeks and pretty much the same size than the older ones. They went through the normal 'introduction', spending weeks in an adjacent pen where everybody could watch each over, and slow introduction to the flock composed of 4 older girls. 2 of the older ones have been a bit bullying the young ones at first and have spent a week in 'jail' for it, but the problem is now the young ones are scared to go in the coop at night because they are scared of those 2 in general. They went once on their own but i assume there was some drama inside the small coop and since then, for a week now, i have to bring them inside myself while they just roost outside.

Any advice? Been reading a lot about it, but not in a case where after a week, they still don't get in. Even when the 2 were in jail, the young ones didn't go in the coop by themselves. How can i get them to understand the coop is a safe place? One of the 2 young ones has been very skittish from the very beginning and i suspect maybe she was bullied already as a young chick by the rest of her flock. Thanks in advance.

The easy way I've indirectly found, if you can provide electricity near your coop, is making the outside of the coop bright at night, chickens don't like the light at night and will sleep in the coop where it's dark.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Yes, 6 birds. We used to have 6 already at some point but in the last year, 2 had to be culled sadly(1 tumor and 1 egg periotinitis).

The coop is a small mobile coop, 120cm wide x 190cm deep and 120cm high inside. Livin in a part of Europe where nice days are not many, and winter quite harsh, they have a summer pen for about 6 months of the year and then move to the greenhouse so they have a nice protected space to roam around in winter when it's contstantly -10 or -15C

1 roost bar E-shaped, main bar being 160cm, but in the past, with 6 adults, they were using barely more than half the roost space, they all snuggle.

All bars are at the same height as I have no option to set it differently.

In a perfect world they would have a bigger coop, bigger pen and so on, I unfortunately have no option currently to do things differently or modify the coop in any way.
It's dark early around 7pm and they wake up around 7am now, i can see by eveyrbody's position and the fact the young ones are not sleeping in the nest box anymore that there's no more drama overnight. The issue is basically that one of the young ones is extremely skittish and the other one just follow the 'lead'. So i'm just trying to get an input from people who have had very skittish girls on how i can help them, and somehow have them go back in the coop at night before it gets too cold and pitch black at 4pm, for their own sake.

The second associated issue is that in the morning, the young ones are last to come out, they take their time, BUT the ex-bullies, usually go back in fairly quickly to lay their egg, so the young ones get panicky and go hide in the nest box instead of just walking around to wards the exit... hence creating unnecessary drama.

Does the coop sit inside a predator-proof run? I have a Nestera coop with two roosts (~a meter long?) inside a run, and after a lot of hand-wringing, I no longer lock the coop, just the run. They put themselves to bed, and at dusk-dark, I count heads and lock the run.

I added an outdoor roosting area next to the platform on which the Nestera sits, and all five (3 older, 2 younger) now move back and forth between inside and out. By the time it’s cold at night (current night-time temps are around 9-10°C), I hope that the rest of the nighttime drama will have resolved.

It does seem pretty common for otherwise calm flocks to quarrel over sleeping spots.

- Wow, Estonia! I can see that you would have very cold winters, right on the Baltic Sea! I know you joined several years ago, but welcome back to BYC.