We have 11 13-week old Silkies and 13 4-week old chicks (RIRs, BOs and BRs). We've been letting the Silkies out into their run for about 10 days now and the chicks for about 5 days. We would have let them out sooner, but we didn't have the run secure enough. At first, no one went back into the coop at night. We had to pick up each one and put them in. The next few nights, it got better. A few would go in, but the rest would need picked up. And no one was going in until we called them and encouraged them to. A few nights ago, the Silkies started going in on their own around dusk and last night EVERYONE went back into the coop on their own - babies and all! We were so proud of our little flock. Hopefully that will continue and putting them up for the night will be easy-peasy from here on out! Just had to brag a little. LPOHHomestead www.littlepatchofheavenhomestead.blogspot.com
Awesome! Some chickens seem to catch the drift a lot quicker than others. We've been taking ours out in the run since they were about a week old (they're 3 weeks old now), and while they will go straight into the coop if something scares them (e.g. crows mostly, lol), they haven't associated coop with dark just yet and will roost on us instead. XD
