Also, as I stated in earlier posts my game plan for how to integrate the chickens with dog kennel in the run. Everyone was super friendly so I let him out and removed the dog kennel. Shortly before the chickens do what they do (eating drinking stretching returning to the coop etc) my rooster decided that he wanted to mate with girls. I let them carry on for a bit because they are chickens and simply doing what nature intended for them to do. My girls were not to thrilled with my roo and one of my hens went inside the coop way before bedtime just to escape. So while the chickens were all in an uproar my daughter (15) & I started to panic as we too were not familiar with this type of thing. I yelled out to my daughter to open the gate to let the girls out of the run to make it easier for me to catch him. Sooo...OF COURSE my rooster got out too. The girls had long since returned to the run/coop while my daughter and I were trying to find the roo because he ran off into neighbors soy beans crops. It took us an hour to find/grab him and get him back to the coop.
Our rooster did not know his way home so we had to train/teach him where his home is.with the girls we kept them locked up inside the coop for an entire 7 days when they finally got to come out they automatically knew where to go at bedtime. We took the advice from
@CluckerFamily and created a partition where the girls were on the side of the nesting boxes and he was on his own separate side but they could still see each other. Everyday we let the girls out and then open the door in the partition for the roo to have room to occupy the entire coop all day long until the girls want to go to bed. For 30 minutes before I open the gate for the girls to come in I take the roo out to hold him and pet him and let him stretch his legs to run around inside the run. Then we put him back inside the coop on his side. And the girls climb the ladder & go to bed. Right now today we let the roo out of the coop. The girls are out free ranging while he’s locked inside the run. The girls continue to visit him through the fence. I couldn’t continue with him inside the coop because all he did allllllllllllllllllll day long was crow nonstop. Our new game plan is to continue to carry on with the chickens this way for the next seven days and still keep the partition up in the coop during this time at night. The next phase will be letting all the chickens out to free range together. I will definitely provide you with an update. I hope this is helpful to you.
and thank you for the pictures of him! Handsome handsome boy!
” together like that. Of course after a lot of googling I read that chickens tend to see the color red best, then blue, then yellow. For me I wanted something different than the usual red & white chicken coop that you see every day around every country block. I decided to go with the blue paint with white trim and some patriotic decorations. We still have a solar motion detector (White) to go above the coop door, & I am going to use sponges cut into the shape of a Star to be dipped into white paint creating an entire border of white stars along the bottom of the coop. I appreciate you for your kind comment as I have been teased a lot about my chickens who must have come from 5th Avenue and live in a posh high society penthouse. My thoughts & feelings at the time I decided on how I wanted to decorate the coop were deeply influenced/inspired by the pandemic, the protests, the riots and the intense sadness/heartache I was feeling about what was happening all across America (the world). I have an intense love for all my chickens & i enjoy sitting outside watching them do all the quirky things that chickens do. Sitting out back surrounded by my patriotic atmosphere and listening to the soft clucking noises my chickens make brings me a great deal of peace during a time when society is beyond anything our forefathers ever thought of/planned for the future of the “UNITED” States of America. Perhaps I will post an updated photo of the completed coop sometime in the future. Take care, & be well! 
