Our chickens want to roost outside vs. going inside the hen house at night

[Floyds26]

We have 4 2.5m old chickens that have been successfully move outside to the coop. The coop has both a run and hen house. Issue is that the girls seem to enjoy roosting for the night outside vs. going inside. I have the nesting boxes blocked off at them moment, per my reading here in BYC, to keep them from sleeping and pooping in the boxes, but not sure if this behavioro wanting to roost all night outside is OK, or not. Most of our friends chickens make their way inside right about dark. (we are in CA so temperature is not an issue)

Is this behavior ok? If not, what should we be doing to get them to go to bed indoors. What we are going now is physically moving them inside at night and shutting the door to the hen house, and then letting them out in the morning.

Many thanks.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

It is safer to lock them up at night. It will take time but they will adjust. They are creatures of habit. They have to develop new habits..

 

[oceansunset73]

They need to be trained and shown where to go. What I did when I first brought my chickens outside and introduced them to their coup, is I locked them up in there without access to their run for a week. That way they know this is where "home" is. Afterwards I opened up the coup door to let them out in their run during the day. Once it started getting dark, I had to lift each one up and put them through their door. Only needed to do that a couple times, after that they automatically knew to go home and roost inside their coup.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I assume they do not have adults to learn from.

Keep putting them in at night. They will understand soon that inside is good for sleeping.

The only other thing is making sure the coop is not roasting hot. If it is I would strongly suggest adding a lot more vents.

 

[Mrs. K]

I would be wary of locking birds up in the coop during the daytime in the summer.

If you keep putting them in there, one night you will go down and can't find them, and they will all be safely where you were going to put them. Once you have multi-generational chickens, this is no longer a problem.

 

[aart]

Welcome to BYC @Floyds26!
Dd they just go out to the coop and have never roosted inside coop?
Did you leave them confined to the coop when you first put them out there?
Pics of your coop and run, inside and out, might help us help you spot an problem.

 

[CDA15]

Last night was the first time I couldn't find our chicks. They had been huddling in the corner of their run and I've been putting them through the door each night. When I went to put them to bed, their usual huddle spot was empty and I found them in the coop! Keep putting them in at night, they'll get it!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yes, some photos could help. A shot of the run where they are sleeping to see if it is covered and the general layout, a general shot of the coop from outside showing the pop door and elevation, and a shot of the coop inside showing roosts, nests, and such. The better idea of your situation the more likely we will see something that helps.

Are they roosting up off the ground on something in the run or sleeping in a huddle on the ground? If they are sleeping off the ground, which is higher, what they are sleeping on or the roosts in the coop? How long have they been in the coop/run? California is a big state, just how rough will the weather get this winter? I've seen chickens sleep in trees in weather below zero Fahrenheit without problems. But they were well protected from wind and the elements in general. It's very possible you don't have any weather issues coming up.

Other than possibly weather issues, the reason you'd want them sleeping inside is protection from predators. If you consider your run totally predator proof it's not an issue, but it's easier to make a coop totally predator proof than it is a larger run. With only 4 chickens it's quite possible your run is adequately protected from digging, climbing, and flying predators. One potential problem if they sleep anywhere near the edge of the run is that a raccoon or possibly something else can stick a paw through the fence and pull your chickens apart. If your fencing mesh is big enough that a raccoon could do that you may need to reinforce that area with small mesh wire, probably hardware cloth. In general locking them in the coop at night or even them sleeping in there with the door open keeps them safer by adding another layer of protection. But plenty of people do not lock them in the coop at night if they consider their run adequately predator proof.

Are your roosts inside the coop higher than the nests? If so then it is unlikely they will want to sleep in the nests once they start to roost. My brooder-raised chicks normally sleep in a huddle on the ground until they are about 10 to 12 weeks old, about the age of yours. Then they start to sleep on the roosts. I've had some start roosting at 5 weeks, some take a lot longer than 12 weeks, but 10 to 12 is a good average. Depending on the layout of your coop they may want to sleep in a nest until they start to roost. There is nothing wrong with blocking the nests until they start to lay and start sleeping on the roosts, but if they are going to sleep in the nests I want to know before they start to lay so I can fix the problem. Otherwise you can get poopy eggs when you open the nests or you train them to lay somewhere other than your nests. Once they get in that habit it's hard to break them and get them to lay in the real nests.

At that age it's highly possible what you are seeing is normal and kind of expected. You may have a problem, I can't tell based on what little I know about your situation. The more information you can give us the better we will be able to help you.

Welcome to the forum, glad you joined!

 

[Floyds26]

I realized I never wrote back to say you all are AWESOME. Thanks you!!!! Took the advice above and also removed the really high roost that was outside....and sure enough, they fell right into the routine of going inside at night.

We now have second batch of chicks that are about 14 weeks old and roosting perfectly.