tree chickens

[vtpenguin]

We have three "tree" chickens. Three hens, 2 hamburgs, 1 welsummer, than insist on sleeping in the maple tree that is in there run. I'm concerned about a night time owl or coon attack. Any ideas on how to stop this and make them go into the coop?

Speaking of strange behavior, we've got a really nice coop for the chickens, however, the ones that do sleep in it at night refuse to use the roosts i made, but instead sleep in their laying boxes (which so far, have not seen an egg yet)

Any ideas? Should I not worry?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Make sure your roosts are higher than the nest boxes. You can block off the nest boxes too, if they aren't ready to lay in there. Put some golf balls or fake eggs in there if they aren't laying in there but laying elsewhere. (They usually want to be at the highest point to sleep at night so make sure your roosts are the highest point.)

I wouldn't tolerate tree chickens. I'd fix a temporary pen next to the coop with netting overhead so they are trained to sleep in the coop (put them in an enclosure in other words). A light on inside the coop at roosting time might help when you are ready to take down the enclosure.

It is hard to say what might work for your situation, but in my situation that is what I would do.

 

[vtpenguin]

OK. Thank you!

What I will do then is block off the top three boxes, there are 6 total, three in a row, two high. They used to sleep on TOP of the boxes, but we wired that off, which I think led to the tree roosting now that I think of it. I will then make sure the roosts are higher than the boxes. Thank you. I'll try the light as well.

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