I'm a little ticked off at my flock......five production reds, four barred rock hens and a Dominecker rooster. I live with the guilt of knowing that their coop/run is a bit too small for ten chickens, and do everything I can to compensate until I can make some physical corrections to the accommodations. One thing I try to do is finish all of my errands early in the day, so I can get home and let them free range for a good while before bedtime. Well today, I let them out at three (usually it's 5:30 - 6:00) and guess what......they all climbed up into the trees and went to sleep !!!! Aren't they supposed to be looking for bugs and stuff? On top of all that, they started filing back into the coop and doing roost assignments at 7:30 - there was another HOUR of daylight left !!!! What is up with these chickens? DD
I am in the process of building a bigger coop. They have half of my shed ( I set this up as a transfer coop once we tear down the old coop) and the old coop. At night, I find my BO babies wandering outside at 830pm, the Rooster in the old coop and everyone else in the shed. Sometimes, the roo is missing in action, the Sultan is in the old coop and everyone else is in the shed. And other times, the babies are on the floor in the old coop, the buff cochin is in the shed and everyone else is on the roost in the old coop. I ALWAYS tuck them in for the night. I never know what I am going to find. Its different every day. Its like they are playing musical coops! I can't wait til I finish the new coop and they only have ONE option. Oh, and no more free-ranging! They are just destroying my mulch beds. I have mulch all over the place.
Our girls have been in their coop since July 4th, but I haven't built their run yet. We've been doing the same routine as you, letting them range after work and all day on weekends. They seem to return to the coop by 8pm at the latest, and even take afternoon naps in the coop on the weekends. I guess it's normal, and it could be much worse since the woods are so dense around us that we probably wouldn't find them at night out there.
My girls do the same thing... if it is too hot outside they run out of the coop/run, walk around a bit and then right back into the run! Then they come out about 7 pm to eat a few bugs and go back about 8:30ish. Their run is shaded so I guess it is cooler. Last night we got them to come out earlier.... DH piled all the lawn clippings outside their door and it had TONS of grasshoppers in it!
