Topic of the week - Coop training the flock

[featherhead007]

How are the roosters hard to manage? I actually want a polish rooster but of course I'd like some advice if you have it!

Take my polish rooster, he used to be nice, but now my shins are all bruised up.. He's a little maniac fuzzhead now!

 

[featherhead007]

Take my polish rooster, he used to be nice, but now my shins are all bruised up.. He's a little maniac fuzzhead now!

but i still love him!

 

[GldnValleyHens]

Coop training ducks is harder. They aren't normal like chickens. Mine have taken to sleeping under the coop where I can't reach them, and they run so fast that I can't catch them. It's really getting annoying, because one of these days a predator will discover the yummy ducks lounging around by the coop in the middle of the night, and I won't have anymore ducks I dunno what to do.

 

[quackingdom]

Coop training ducks is harder. They aren't normal like chickens. Mine have taken to sleeping under the coop where I can't reach them, and they run so fast that I can't catch them. It's really getting annoying, because one of these days a predator will discover the yummy ducks lounging around by the coop in the middle of the night, and I won't have anymore ducks I dunno what to do.

I use a stick when I lock up my ducks, a piece of PVC that for some reason is painted blue. It helps to reach into awkward locations like under the thorn bushes where the ducks love to hang out, and it also serves as en elongation of your arm, which helps when trying to funnel fifteen ducks into a tiny opening.

Mine are definitely "coop trained" now, as good as they'll ever get. Normally, by evening, the flock is heading towards their pen. If I come really late, like after dark, they'll all usually be sleeping in their pen. But I have to lock them up at least half an hour before dark, so I have time to walk the dogs, and many of the ducks don't like that because they think they should be out as long as there's daylight.

So almost every evening, there's some rascal missing that I have to track down.

I think ducks take longer to train, too. It was over a year before they were really reliable about going to bed.

 

[featherhead007]

who pays you for all that duck training? never mind, you probably just put that on their bill! LOL

 

[FarmerGirl101]

Keep them in the coop for about a month but for the first two weeks (more or less) I "lock" them up in the coop at night so they get into the habit of sleeping in there, so pretty soon they go in by themselves. I supervise them for the couple of times so they don't go into the street.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

A very timely topic for this week. Especially so as I am, at this moment 21:08, staring at my entire flock on my porch. Or put another way, NOT in the coop past dusk.

 

[Perris]

Mine are normally very good at bringing themselves home to roost, trained by their broodies so to do, which is great. However, the presence of an over-defensive broody can also put other birds off entering a coop that she's occupying. So I currently have two broodies occupying two coops, and one gets the whole thing to herself and her chicks, while the other is sharing hers with everyone else in the flock, as well as her chicks!

 

[Dreamzchaser]

It didn't work for me, with my ducks. They quickly learned it was a bribe and would just stare at me like, "Really? I'm not falling for that." So I had to get a stick out and herd them inside.

I just acquired 12 Rouen ducks. Unknown who will be a drake or hen but the stick is what works or my hands and this post was funny because I feel like an airplane ground guide,lol lift right arm out so they go to the left or vice-versa. It is hilarious!

 

[3KillerBs]

When I moved the flock to their new coop I left them inside for a week before opening the door to the run. They put themselves to bed just fine.

Before I had roosters I had issues with each "teenage" batch of birds wanting to roost in the run instead of going inside at dusk. Rameses isn't as good at it as Ludwig was, but I have seen my boys rounding up the late-stayers and making them go inside.