HELP! Getting chickens to pen up for the night

[TitiBebbs]

How does one train chickens to go into their coop for the night? We let the chickens out when ds gets home at 3. We put them up around 7 each night. I tried to remain consistent in hopes they will "learn" to go to bed. I've tried "baiting the ramp to their coop with corn and lettuce but though they really LOVE the lettuce, they grab it and run back out before I can close the door.

They also get out of the electrified poutry net. I'm sure this is because I set it up wrong or something, but they DO come back into the "yard" on thier own. There are 29 chicks. One in particular, we call it (him I think) Trixter, WILL NOT GO IN. My son loves chasing him around but I know this will NEVER work.

Please help! Tell me what I can do to get everyone to bed.

 

[Blondie]

I find that they will go in by themselves when it is dusk or almost dark. Are you waiting till then? If so, the work is done for you.

 

[Poison Ivy]

My girls won't go in the coop until its almost dark. Right now thats around 8 pm. I make sure I don't feed them in the afternoon and then bait them with bread and some feed when they are ready to head inside. It took my girls several times before they got the idea. Now they go inside by themselves. All I have to do is go out after 8 and lock the gate. But last night I miss counted and two where left out all night long but they came to the fence by coop and roosted there all night. Glad they where ok this morning.

 

[robbobbin]

My chickens trained me...I now patiently wait until dusk--when THEY decide it's bedtime. Boogers!

 

[tiffanyh]

Same here---when it get dark enough they head in on their own. It tooks a week or so of me manually doing it when I first got them though.

 

[AccidentalFarm]

Mine trained me, too. They go in at dark on their own. By the time I get out there to close up the coop, they are all snug on their perches.

 

[countrygirl4513]

Well, mine are sleeping out next to their house on a picnic table bench. I just went out to check them. I guess cuz it's so warm at night they aren't particular about where they sleep. It's odd though, I've never had chickens do this. I even have to go out in the rain and physically put them in the house and block the door. It's getting redundant!!!!! So I have just decided, I have mentally challenged chickens!

 

[blossom hen]

My chicks have trained me to go out between eight and eight-thirty to close their door. But they, too, are mentally challenged because they still want to pile up in the corner on the floor! I think it's because there are not any older chickens to get on the perches. I pick them up one or two at a time, set them on the perches and by the time I get all twenty moved, the first few are back down, fussing at me and piled up again.

We do this several rounds each evening and they're finally all on the perches when I leave. By the time I go back to check on them before I go to bed (I Know-can't seem to break that "checking on the kids in their beds" syndrome

) at least half are back in their corner pile and sleeping comfortably!

 

[cookinmom]

Quote:
Mine did this same thing...Until...the boys all went to their new home on Friday! That very night, I peeked in and all the girls were on the roosts sleeping, as they have been every night since! Those crazy boys were telling them the wrong thing!

Mine were kind of young yet when they moved (of necessity) out to their coop, so I would go out in the evening with a snack (a dish of boiled egg or oatmeal) and when they saw the dish, they would all run into the house, where I would come in and close the door behind us. They ate the snack, and then I would let myself out. Even if we were gone, they would go in by themselves, as long as I turned their heatlamp on before I left. Fortunately, they figured it out by time it got too hot for a heatlamp. Now they all just head inside at dusk, and pop back out in the morning, as soon as the sky turns gray.

 

[jkm]

I put the heat lamp back up, aimed at the roost, there they are at 830 pm!