I've been taking my ten chicks (4-5 weeks old) (7 RIR, and 3 Red Star) out to the coop/pen during the day when its been warm enough and bringing them in at night. They've actually spent some time yesterday and today free ranging in the yard for a few hours (more or less supervised) and are getting pretty good about running back to the coop when they feel threatened. Tonight it was so warm, I was thinking about letting them spend the night in the coop -- they usually go to sleep in a nestbox when they are ready for a nap in the day, though today they were all sunbathing -- but when I went out to shut the doors at nine oclock, thinking they'd be bedded down and asleep, they were all out in the yard where they've come to expect to be captured for the night, cheeping their hearts out, waiting for their pickup and ride into the house. Needless to say, they are all bedded down inside tonight. This staying outside in the coop is going to be harder than I thought.
Ya gotta teach them that the bus stop has changed! When you go out to get them, just put them in the coop. Do this for several nights and they may figure it out.
Yep, it took mine awhile to put themselves in the coop. After 3-4 days of me putting them on the ramp and encouraging them to run into the coop themselves (started at the top of the ramp the first day, and further down the ramp on later days). They finally were pretty good at it, and had been putting themselves in the coop for a few days, when I came home at 11pm and found them all asleep on the grass. Also when I first didn't have the heat lamp on, they had a night or two that they didn't put themselves to bed. Just help them out. I have food and water in the coop, so they would want to go up there (and only water in the run), I also worked on it throughout the day for the first few days.