You're going to laugh at this one...

[Omran]

Best way to brake the habit is lock them in the new coop for 4 days with out let them out at all and believe me they will stay there. Idid the same for mine.

 

[MoTownChickie]

WOW! I love your house. Did you build it yourself? Kinda looks like a couple of giant yurts with a connecting hallway.

I'm sure you have possums, racoons, foxes, and owls in your neck of the woods, so they should have some kind of protection.

If worse comes to worst, you could make a mini-pen in the middle area where they sleep to protect them from predators at night.

 

[OccamsTazer]

I wish I'd built it, because then I'd own it! My bf and I rent it from some friends. Kinda far from campus, but not too bad.
We do indeed have a wide variety of predators here. I spent a week with a rooster in the house in a dog-crate-turned-hospital after a hawk tried to grab him. The dogs keep away the 4-legged bad things, we haven't had any probs with them. So far.

I'm going to try locking them in the coop for another week, hopefully that will work!

 

[goldenluver]

Hi, I'm new here. I can really relate to you, we finally put two full kennels worth of panels up around the coop for a large run. after the first two nights of having to put them in or with a light on because it was to dark inside for them to see. now they go in just before dusk and get on their perches.
mine were raised in the house, and later out in a leanto, then a dog house before the coop was built. I had to carry all of them from my back deck and furniture to the small pen and dog house for two months, because they were free ranging inmy backyard.
I have 15 RIR and 2 BR turkeys, picture 12 of the chickens fitting on a 2x2 square stool by the back dorr every night, how they fit I don't know.

 

[OccamsTazer]

Two months! Oh dear...you are a saint!

 

[goldenluver]

not really, just thought they were my babies and so cute crowded on my stool.

I have not let them free range out of the run since, I want to keep them wanting to go int to coop at night. they've been in it for only a week now. I got them as chicks on March 2. I hope they will lay inside the nesting boxes, not under my deck.

 

[Sugar Sand Farm]

You could try giving them something special only at night when you put them to bed. Thats how we trained our ducks and geese to go inside. Everynight they get a salad in a bright yellow bowl. When they see that bowl going inside they beat you to it. Make sure you only give the treat in the evening when you want them to go inside.

 

[Chicksdigit]

My Chickens were in a pen inside my storage building for a couple of months, so when I finished their coop I had to go out everyday for about a month and physically put them in the coop. they finally got it dark means go inside.

 

[Uppity Peon]

I love the house! Do you have power to the coop? Maybe a little extra warmth will make it more to their liking. A little 25 watt bulb inside an up-side down terracotta flowerpot makes a nice warm object for them to huddle near. You could use one of those dusk timers to turn it on for a few hours after dusk.

 

[gritsar]

My chicks spent the first five plus months on our screened porch. After moving them to the coop and locking them in for a few days, I let them out to free range again. Come dusk, right back at the screened door again!

It took a full two weeks of being locked in the coop before they got the message.
A secure coop is the safest place for your chickens at night. Or your screened porch, but don't tell my chickens I said that.