what age do they know how to get into the chicken house at night?

[henrietta101]

I am new to chickens. My little ones, around the 10 week mark, were let out into their run yesterday. I had left them in the house only for a few days. They had no idea how to go into the house in hte night time. I had to put them back in myself when it was dark! Poor little things! What age do they usually start doing in themselves?

 

[kuntrychick]

IME, if you put them in a few nights, they will figure it out & go on their own. What I do is lure them into the run with scratch & close the run & they go into their house on their own. Then, after a couple of nights, they figure out to go to the run & their coop on their own.

 

[redhen]

You need to keep them INSIDE the coop for like a week...
Then they understand that the new coop is "home"...and will usually go into by themselves.
You will probably have to round them up and put them in the coop at night for a few nights also when you let them out of the coop....

 

[Imp]

Quote:
I agree with kuntrychick & redhen, you may need to put them away for a while.

Is the coop dark? Some people have reported success with adding a light so they are not afraid to go into a dark coop. I'm not sure if this helps, as mine have always went in well before it was dark.

Today they went in very early, they decided to be afraid of leaves.

Imp

 

[kuntrychick]

Quote:
It's so funny when a leaf is falling from the sky & I've got this teenage rooster that makes that alert sound like telling them all to run for cover like he thinks it's a hawk or something. LOL

 

[kuntrychick]

Yeah, if the coop is dark they might not go in. That's why a little before it starts getting even a little dark, I go ahead & lure them in the run with a little scratch...only enough to last them for about 5-10 min or so. Then, they go into their coop & get situated where they want to roost & by the time they get settled it's dark.

 

[gale65]

When we made our new coop we had to put them in one night. They figured it out after that.

 

[henrietta101]

i was told to keep them in their house for a week but decided to let them into the run as well as it is hot here at the moment and they looked a little restricted. Should I put them back in the house only? And not in the run even though they have had the run for two days now? Will they still learn that the house is where to go even though I had them out? I will attach a pic of their home in the next entry because I have not loaded it yet!.

 

[henrietta101]

I cannot find where I stored my pics! Oh no. Will post later. but if you have any thoughts pls let me know.