Young hens don’t use coup

[Jhend1john]

3 month old hens just inserted into run attached to a coup a week ago. The chickens don’t go into the coup at night. When left alone they (9 of them) just huddle together. I stuff them into the coup at night and an auto door opens to let them out. Rained yesterday and I kept them in coup all day. Put food and water in the coup but the chickens don’t go into coup to drink or eat. I’m new to this world and am looking for some advice. Picture of our run and coup are in my introduction

 

[Shadrach]

Two suggestions, not mutually exclusive.
Put a window in the coop.
Teach the pullets how to walk up the ramp rather than picking them up and putting them in.

 

[Jhend1john]

Thank you for the advice.

We have windows on both sides of the coup. How do you teach them to walk up the ramp?

 

[Shadrach]

Thank you for the advice.

We have windows on both sides of the coup. How do you teach them to walk up the ramp?

I put them on the ramp, place my hand under their rear ends and sort of propel them up gently using my other hand to prevent them turning left or right. I must admit, I've never done this with three month old pullets but I've done it with more chicks than I care to recall up to say six weeks old.
Eventually they jump onto the ramp as high as they can and go in, so more often than not the bottom part of the ramp isn't used much.

 

[Lpsouth1978]

Give them time. If you have to help them in manually for a while, they will eventually, likely, learn to go in on their own. That said, they will do what they want, which isn't always what is best for them. My pullets all stayed UNDER the coop during the rains over the weekend instead of INSIDE the coop. They chose the mud over the dry coop.

 

[aart]

Rained yesterday and I kept them in coup all day. Put food and water in the coup but the chickens don’t go into coup to drink or eat.

Leave them in the coop for a few days to a week.

 

[Yardmom]

They need to learn that the coop is home. Guiding them in each night will eventually teach them that. Locking them in the coop for a few days will likely teach them sooner.

 

[SourRoses]

3 month old hens just inserted into run attached to a coup a week ago. The chickens don’t go into the coup at night. When left alone they (9 of them) just huddle together. I stuff them into the coup at night and an auto door opens to let them out. Rained yesterday and I kept them in coup all day. Put food and water in the coup but the chickens don’t go into coup to drink or eat. I’m new to this world and am looking for some advice. Picture of our run and coup are in my introduction

From what I can see of the coop itself in your introduction picture, it looks like the coop may be quite small. The run is a nice size though.
Any chance of some pictures of the coop itself, including the roosts?

Generally speaking, a few things can make birds reluctant to go to bed at night even after learning what to do.
- A house that is too hot, without enough ventilation.
- A house that is too small, causing them to feel cramped. A young flock will tend to stick together outside of it, older flocks with a defined pecking order will have the lower birds kicked out.
- Roosts inside the coop that are lower than roosts in the run. Chickens like to sleep as high as they physically can get to, for the feeling of safety from being up in a "tree".

If coop size winds up being the issue and you don't wish to expand, reducing the size of the flock should help. The general recommendation is 4 square feet per chicken inside the coop, and 1 foot of roost bar each.

 

[Jhend1john]

Thank you all for the tips. Tonight they all went in on their own. And thirty minutes later the automatic door closed. Everything went perfectly tonight.

The coup is fairly big inside. We took the plans for a coup for about a dozen and doubled it. They haven’t used the rooting bars yet. We also have a shelf. All together there is a floor, a shelf above. A roost bar above that and another row of roost bar above that.

 

[Jhend1john]

We effectively built two of the following (without the run) and attached them together. We bought the run off of eBay.

https://www.thirdcoastcraftsman.com/product-page/chicken-coop-and-run-plans