I'm probably going to give WAY too much detail but I want to explain the background of this current dilemma. In fall of 2020, we adopted 5 game hens from one of my husband's coworkers who didn't want them anymore. For the first 6-ish months they stayed in my barn and roosted in the rafters. I had a GLW rooster who adopted them. By the spring, several of them started brooding. Three were killed by foxes and we butchered the rooster since he turned aggressive. I moved the two remaining hens into my Silkie pen. One hen in particular, I call her Mama, seemed pretty intent on taking her chicks out to free range so I let her out. In the evening, she would take them back to the Silkie coop and go back inside willingly. Since the spring she has raised two sets of babies in the same pattern. After she weaned her 2nd set of chicks a few weeks ago, she stopped going back in the Silkie pen and has resumed roosting in the barn all by herself. I decided to try to rehome her into my main coop which has a much bigger run and more space. I have several hens from her first and 2nd set of chicks in there too. I caught her and moved her into the coop at night about a week ago. However she is refusing to roost in there without me catching her every night and putting her in there myself after dark. How long do you think we will have to go through this nightly routine before she starts going in there willingly on her own?
