When do you usually put your chickens in the coop for the night?

[rapunzel162]

Maybe they just want you to hold them. I used to have 1 special rooster that did that. He was a tiny mille flour.He sat on my lap while I sat on my back porch in the summer drinking coffee. In the winter I put him on my large wood pile in my living room at night. (My kids hated it as he crowed in the AM. LOLOL Thats one way to get teens out of bed. When I got him he had like a broken foot at one time.So I called him sparkey, and he became my pal for many years.He was one spoilt chicken!!!!!!

 

[crowinncluckn]

Hi, I'm new to BYC, however have had chickens before. I've got a new flock of 5 Australorpes, approx 1-1/2-2 months old. They are in a large fenced in area, coop is in the middle. I
like to close their coop door at night due to predators, however they will not go back into their coop at night. They have been in the fenced area for 2 weeks now. The first week when coop door was opened, they did not venture outside, this week (#2) they are all outside but at night, I have to go out and put them back in the coop and close the door. The last flock we had went in every night at dusk. Any advise? Thanks Lisa

Try shutting them in the coop for several days before letting them out again. Also keep their food in the coop at least until they are used to going in and out on their own.

 

[crowinncluckn]

I have 3 new chicks about 10 weeks old. They have been free-ranging with their year old sisters for a month and are learning the pecking order. However, at night I have been putting them in a coop in the garage since the big girls are so territorial. However, I need the chicks to learn to go into the coop at night, up the ramp and onto the roost. The big girls are not having it. . . help!

I would wait until they are much closer in size to the big girls, usually about 16-18 weeks, and then put the new chicks in the coop at night with the older ones. There will still be some pecking order issues because , well, chickens are chickens, but the younger ones should follow the older ones into the coop each night.