The ladies moved in, the babies moved out: Why won't everyone roost in the coop?

[AwesomeFacer]

Hi, all:

Here's a brief background, which is needed to fully put my question into context:

My neighbor and I free range chickens. They sleep in the coop at night, and the roam all over the property each day. A very happy chicken existence.

My neighbor had 17 chickens, which are now about 5-6 months old. She found that 6 were roos, and decided to butcher 4 of those. She bought 7 more baby chickens, bringing the total flock up to 24. The babies are now about 3-4 months old, and while they're not yet laying, and are about 2/3 the size of the rest of the flock, they look more like chickens than baby chicks. When the flock was 24 in number, the babies didn't sleep in the coop, which is 9.5 x 11 feet by 12 feet high and had 2 roosting bars. She butchered 4 of the roos, and the babies moved into the coop and roosted happily there each night.

Then, I brought my 11 hens to live with her flock of now 20. Mine are 15-month old Buff Orps and are the same size as her first 17, but bigger than the 7 babies. My hens return to the coop and roost each night, but now her babies have moved out and roost directly outside the coop. She added a third roosting bar, but they still sleep outside the coop. The chicken poop on the floor of the barn/shop is not making us friends with our landlord, and so we need all 31 chickens to sleep in the coop.

How do we get the "babies" to move back into the coop with everyone else? What might be the issues? We figured the coop was big enough: at 105 square feet, that's 3.37 square feet per bird, and that's just for sleeping since they free range all day.

 

[NovaAman]

Well... Looks like you will have to put them in by hand again for a few nights... You've upset the flock dynamics a bit is all, Maybe add another roost again. I know you just added, but add another. Place the birds on the roost each night for a few nights. Put the younguns on roost away from the others that were just added. See if they'll start using those roosts instead of out side where they are not supposed to be.

 

[AwesomeFacer]

Good idea. We did that a few times, and it worked, but it's not sustainable. You think in time they'll learn to roost appropriately? Space isn't the problem, is it?

 

[mickey328]

When we moved our girls into their new coop a couple of them were rather timid to climb the ladder. We finally put a light in it and turned it on at dusk for about an hour. It only took 2 nights for them to figure out that they could get up there on their own and now they all go as soon as twilight hits.

 

[NovaAman]

Do you have a minimum of 31 feet of roost space? I do not think floor space is the problem. I do think though that it could be if they are ever confined to it for days on end in bad weather... But anyway, I think its just that you changed the flock dynamics and they all need to get their places in the flock established. Usually the youngers will feel it the most. You may have to do this for a week or so, but I think once you get a few to keep going back in, the other will follow. It took me almost 2 weeks to get some girls to "Remember" to go to the summer coop and not the baby coop. It was a nice night when they were all where I wanted them to be.

 

[AwesomeFacer]

We don't have a ladder in the coop. To get to the place where they do choose to roost outside of the coop, they hop up a series of things like steps. Maybe a ladder will help.

 

[AwesomeFacer]

I'll have to check the length of the roosts, that might be the issue. We have either 27 or 33 feet now that the third roost is up, but maybe I'll have to show the youngins that there is enough space now by moving them into the coop for a week or so.