sleeping outside

[isabellapalomino]

my chickens have a chicken house with a fenced in area attached. in the fenced in area there are perches that they like to sit on. up till a few days ago, all the chickens slept in their house but then a few nights ago, on chicken decided to sleep outside instead. then the next night the rooster stayed out with her. then the night after that, there were 4 chickens and the rooster outside and now all but one are outside. i usually lock them in the house at night so that they won't make commotion when the sun starts rising untill i can get out there and so that they don't get eaten by some wild animal that could possibly get in there, so my question is: why did they just decide to sleep outside and should i put them in the house or should let them to continue sleeping outside?

 

[centrarchid]

Can you increase ventilation of building they are supposed to roost in?

 

[Saltysteele]

they're birds. they were born to sleep under the stars. they'll go inside if they want

 

[chezpoulet]

Quote:
I have the same problem- they have been in their coop for the past 5 months and I have never had to chase them into the coop at night- the past week I have had to physically move them off the roosts in the run and put them in the coop. Nothing else has changed, except for the fact that we put a roof over the run area where their outdoor roosts are-thinking that that wil give them more room in inclement weather- maybe they think since it has a roof it is now part of the coop as well! Ugh! I am going to try to remove some of the roosts tonight to see if that helps. Don't want to try to catch chickens at night in my jammies to lock them up, as it is light till about 9:30pm these days!

 

[isabellapalomino]

yeah, they are sleeping under the tarp that has the roosts under it. and they have a window on the house at the same level as they are when they are in there, so i think they get good ventalation.

 

[Player Hater]

your ventilation should be above them, not at their level

perhaps there's a draft annoying them

 

[centrarchid]

Drafts in my experience a problem during cold weather / winter. As temperature increases my birds roosting in barn with minimal ventilation tend to move out into trees if ventilation not increased with temperature. This very apparent as humidity increases as well on nights with minimal wind.

I have resorted to following to minimize heat stress during production season. May not look like much but better than roosting in trees with great horned owls about. Note ventilation very high but birds do not mind. View of stars obstructed but my birds seem not to be star gazers.