They don't have the since to get in out of the rain!

[vkp23]

My husband and I spent $300 and two weekends building a house for our chickens. THEY WILL NOT SLEEP IN IT!!

They instead have chosen to sleep on our front deck right in front of the door! There is so much poop on our deck! How can I get them to sleep in the house so when my girls start to lay they will lay in the nest boxes we built in the house? I can't chase them all down at night during the week because I have a bad back and since we live in the boonies and there have been break ins at our neighbors it's just not safe for me to go out to round them up. So the only time I can is on the weekends when the hubby is off. How long would it take for them to get used to it if we did that? Stupid birds sleep in the rain!

Any help would be great!

 

[djackjr]

Can you lock them in their house for a couple of days? I heard that works.

 

[vkp23]

I probably could do that but I think I'll wait til we butcher some of them. I'm worried that the house will be too small and they will kill each other if I squeeze them all in for all day. At night it shouldn't be a big deal since they would be sleeping anyway. I think I'll try that once we butcher a few. Thanks. Any other ideas folks?

 

[PortageGirl]

Nope, locking them in constantly for several days is the tried and true method of getting them established in a new coop. My big worry is that if they get too established on the porch (though they may be already) it'll be harder to get them to accept the coop, but they'll probably catch on. If they're that crowded, yes, it might be tough... it's really unhealthy to have a coop overcrowded. Maybe you could go out at night and gather a fair sized group after dark, and put them in the coop, locking up that group for a few days. Once you get some established eating and sleeping in it, maybe they'll convert more for you, and you can see how many seem comfy in there.

Culling any real hard cases sounds to be the answer though.

/edit// oh, and keep in mind they might be in there more over any long stretches of bad weather, so making sure there's room for them is really best.

 

[barredcountrycoop]

take a look at my page and see how I keep mine in thier box at night, lol. I let them out every evening for a while but as soon as it starts getting dark they walk right back into thier coop.