Why won't they use the coop?

[Terpsichore94]

Our girls went up in the coop on their own for the first time this evening. We were sooo proud.

All last week they would just huddle in a corner of the run as it started getting dark and we would end up chicken wrangling them into the coop. Someone suggested keeping them locked up in the coop with food and water for a day or two, and that would encourage the feeling that it was their "sanctuary". We only kept them locked up for 2/3 of a day, as our daughter came home from school and let the drawbridge down so they could get out and play, hehe. We forgot to let her in on the plan. But it really seemed to do the trick!

 

[Cape Cod Chick]

Our chickens are a year old and about three weeks ago they started to sleep on their outside roosts in the corners of their run instead of going into their coop as they ALWAYS have. Every night I have to go out to put them to bed, one by one, because we live in an area with alot of predators - foxes, coyotes and racoons.

Our coop isn't very big and does not have a roost for them. Do we need to build a new coop with a roost to get our girls to go to bed? Or is there some other solution?

On the positive side, it's kind of nice to go out and stroke them every night before I pick them up and carry them to safety. It reminds me of saying good night to them every night when they were chicks living in my house.

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

I'm not sure how dark the coop is has any influence...not on mine anyway.
My 10 x 10 coop has no windows and has no large areas of ventilation.
I do very deep bed shavings and it doesn't smell in there.
I leave the big door open all day that it isn't raining.
It is in very heavy shade.

I let everyone out in the AM and they wander all over the place.
I live in a heavily wooded area on a dead end dirt road without hardly any traffic.
Sometimes I'll go out in the daytime and there is no one around at all. 27 chickens and no one is in the yard.
Come dusk they start coming home heading for the coop and the evening snack.
The coop is always much darker inside then it is in the yard or the area near the coop but they go in anyway.