Sleeping issues or not ?

[eggmandoo]

Hello. I am new to chick keeping and I have a few concerns or questions. I have 5 eleven week old chicks (not sexed yet). I got them at 3 weeks old and tried to handle them as much as possible.
They are now outside in a coop with 10m2 pen/run. I feed them dried meal worms daily as a treat (5-10 each) from my hand but they all seem scared of me. A couple are more reluctant to come to me now. Also when I enter the pen, they try to escape and seem alarmed.
On another point all 5 started sleeping together in a nest box. As they are growing they now sleep in a number of nest boxes but rarely perch. Is this a problem. Should they be sleeping on the perches? The perches are the same height as the nest boxes.
Any comments or advice.
Ta

 

[Pork Pie]

They should be roosting, in preference to developing the habit of sleeping in nest boxes. If you put them on the roosts, each evening, they should eventually get the idea. Making the roosts higher than the nest boxes should also encourage this. You could also block off the nest boxes as further encouragement.

Moving from a familiar environment, to a larger one will naturally make them a little more jumpy and unsettled, so i don't think that what you are seeing is anything to be concerned about.

 

[eggmandoo]

Thanks. I thought blocking off the nest boxes may help. Cheers

 

[aart]

Ditto what Ken said.

By 5-6 weeks the males should be pretty easy to ID.

 

[azygous]

I have the perch in my main coop higher than the nest boxes and it's still a daily fight to keep the chickens form sleeping in them. I try to remember to block them come night with a scrap of field fencing. The rear coop has perches much lower than the nest boxes and there is no problem with the chickens sleeping in them. So I don't know how much credibility to place in the "perches must be higher than the nests" maxim. Block off the nests at night if you have a problem. Simple.

As for getting skittish chicks to warm up to you, try relaxing on a comfortable cushion in your run with a carton of live meal worms and see how much more popular that can make you.

 

[eggmandoo]

Ditto what Ken said.

By 5-6 weeks the males should be pretty easy to ID.

These are my chicks. I am not experienced enough to say male or female.