Well, I either have some really stupid birds or I am doing something wrong! I have 12 chicks that are 7 weeks old. They are Buff Orpingtons, Araconas, and Silver Wyondottes. They have been in the new chicken coop now for a week. They have plenty of room (the coop was built to hold 75 birds), good clean litter, roosts that are at 2 ft, 3 ft, and 4 ft, plenty of water and food inside the coop, and a hatch door and ramp doing out to thier run.

The little guys love it outside in the run...problem is they love it so much they just will NOT come into the coop at night. When it gets dark they lay out in the run all huddled together and they seem cold. I have put a heat light in the coop hoping they will "go to the light"; however, they just stay all huddled together in the run.

Since it is getting into the low 20's at night, I worry about the poor babies and since the run is only 4 ft. high, I have to either climb in the run hatch and crawl on my hands and knees to retrieve them and put them in the coop or, if I am lucky, they will huddle near thier run exit and I can go in the coop and pick them up and pull them through the opening. It is getting to be a pain in the neck EVERY night!

I've had tons of chickens in the past and never had this problem. Usually, when it gets dark -- chickens go in! Any suggestions or thoughts are really appreciated. Thanks in advance.

-- Karen (db0421@yahoo.com), November 19, 2001

Answers

try locking them in for a few days,,, alll day and night,, that should "train" them where home is

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), November 19, 2001.

Agree with Stan,do not let them out for a few weeks and when you do let them out an hour or so before dark so they do not have time to forget where home is.

-- renee oneill (oneillsr@home.com), November 19, 2001.

Yep, Stan and Renee are right. We just lock 'em up for a couple weeks and after that we never have any problem getting them in at night. They do have tiny little brains, but after awhile, they figure out that INSIDE is where the roost is!

-- Cheryl in KS (cherylmccoy@rocketmail.com), November 19, 2001.

What finally got my chickens in the coop was a regular 60-watt light bulb. After spending the summer chasing chickens out of the garage, the shed, the trees and trying to herd them to the coop, I realized that they were all trying to settle in a lighted area. (The problem only arose this year after we moved the coop to a dark part of the yard.) Now with the bulb on, they all settle right in. Once they're in and locked up, the light goes off until the next afternoon.

(I tried locking them up, but there was always one renegade who didn't get the message. Once one started staying out, more joined her.)

-- Gail (Quadrupets@aol.com), November 19, 2001.

"They have .... plenty of water and food". Well, that's a problem. DON'T give them plenty of food all day - just morning, and in the evening, when you use it to lure them into the coop, and lock them in.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), November 19, 2001.

My chicks had a problem figuring out how to use the ramp. You might want to make some kind of steps until they get bigger and figure out that ramp. I just piled some cinderblocks up.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), November 19, 2001.