Trouble getting new flock to coop themselves at night

[Presta24]

So I have finally completed my coop. I am having trouble getting the chickens to go in at dusk on their own. I always have to load em up myself. They seem to like to nest on the ground in the corner of the run at night vs getting in the coop. I pick them up and set them on the ladder or porch of the entrance to the coop. A few get the idea and head up the ramp but non actually go in with me pushing their fluffy asses in lol. Thoughts?? Here is my coop

 

[Prop toe]

Do you feed them near your coup? If not feed them near many times they then catch on.I raised gamefowl so adults were confined .Peckng order is out the question.Afther biddies got feathered.I had a huge ground brooder with a fenced in walk to a roost shelter they were fed near the roost they caught on very quickly.Best of luck .Cheers

 

[Presta24]

Do you feed them near your coup? If not feed them near many times they then catch on.I raised gamefowl so adults were confined .Peckng order is out the question.Afther biddies got feathered.I had a huge ground brooder with a fenced in walk to a roost shelter they were fed near the roost they caught on very quickly.Best of luck .Cheers

Yes, the only place we are currently feeding is in the run. They will eventually free range, but I want them to be full size and also be putting them selves away at night so I dont have to chase them around the yard every night

 

[Prop toe]

To be honest I never had a coup on legs like that.Shame I don't have my pics.My wife and I divorced and she trashed them.Soom afther I was injured and had to retire from fowl also.Property I paid all for still tied up in the courts.The ground brooder was 20 x 20 6 ft totally enclosed with a vent with roosts also for when first put in fowl with a closable door open in day time and closed at night .Had thermostat heat lamps in it.I tried to raise as many I could to be same age in waves if you will.Had a run off the front leading to a shelter with roost and feeders everything was enclosed top and sides with 2x 4 wire.gradually they roost under the shelter.Sorry I don't know about that type of coup.Im sure someone can come to ur answer problem.Cheers

 

[3KillerBs]

Welcome to BYC. Where, in general, are you? Climate matters, especially when it comes to housing.

Sometimes chickens just take a while to figure out where their home is. Sometimes people shut them in the coop for several days without allowing them into the run in order to home them to the coop as the proper place to sleep.

However, sometimes there is a reason they won't go in.

Two of the most common reasons are that it's so dark in the coop in the evening that they're afraid to go in and that the ventilation is inadequate so that it's not only dark and scary but hot, stuffy, and unpleasant.

Can you show us photos of all sides of the coop and the interior view?

 

[Byrd gal]

Were they locked in to get them used to roosting in there? Do you have enough room for them? If they feel cramped they may not care for it.pictures and number of chickens will help

 

[rosemarythyme]

Two of the most common reasons are that it's so dark in the coop in the evening that they're afraid to go in and that the ventilation is inadequate so that it's not only dark and scary but hot, stuffy, and unpleasant.

Can you show us photos of all sides of the coop and the interior view?

x2. More photos would help.

In addition, have your chickens ever used a ramp before? If not, they need to be trained to use it. What's the angle on the ramp (very hard to tell from this photo)? If it's too steep they'll struggle with it as well.

 

[Mrs. K]

Why is the coop up so high? There must be a reason?

 

[drdoct]

We moved our flock to a new coop. They had found it earlier and were already laying in the nesting boxes we had in there. But when it came time to go to the roost, they kept going to their old roost. We gathered them all up and put them in the new coop (at dusk after they were roosting) and kept it shut for a day.

The next morning we let them out and of course closed off the old coop. Again, they didn't get the idea. So we put them up in the new coop and then kept it closed for 3 days. We were pretty lucky because it rained 2 of those days so it was nice and cool anyway. We made sure to put some scratch down so they would have something to do. But for 3 long days they were in that coop. These are birds that freerange all day without any boundaries. So we let them out on the 4th morning and they now use the 'new' coop as home.

That IS a high coop though.

 

[Kodadakota]

I have four roosters and six hens what we did is we put seeds and mealworms and they're coop and lights now they are trained