Sleeping outside coop!?

[rmonge00]

Hello

My chickens are about 4 moths old now and at first did a lovely job of going back into the coop at night. The last few nights, however half of them have been roosting out in the Cypress trees behind their coop! I went out and grabbed the 4 that I could reach and put them back in their coop tonight, but there are still 6 out there!! Is there a good way of getting them to go back to sleeping indoors?

Should I build better roosts (right now I just have some PVC pipe that I was using as a feeder as a roost)?

Should I go grab them nightly until they figure it out?

Any other ideas?

Thanks!

Ryan

 

[Animalian]

mine randomly do it sometimes. I've worked out the reasons are
1. The weathers too hot and they won't go in unless they have a frozen water bottle to cool it down
2. I've been lazy and its dirty in there, they don't like a dirty coop.

I'd give them snacks in the coop just before sundown, so at least they're in there and might be encouraged to stay there

 

[Needycowgirl]

I have the same thing going on with my girls. I have that roost on the outside roosts and that curl up together next to the outside of the coop. I am really starting to think its due to the weather..its in the high 50's at night..

 

[Animalian]

Oh and another thing, I just got some new girls and they would wander round the yard sounding panicked because they couldn't work out where to sleep (silly things didn't follow the older girls into the coop) and I found that putting a solar light in front of the coop door helped them work it out. Only stays on for a few hours after sundown so it helped guiding them, plus it's handy if I hear a strange noise I don't have to run out with a torch!

 

[Delta2 23]

I reckon it's more of a habit thing

Mine were used to being taken in every night until we left them to their own devices one day.
But yes, sometimes we find our girls sleeping snugly on the ground in a ditch near the coop door

it must be the weather, it gets mighty hot in that steel coop.