Roosting Issues

[sheila80]

I have 3 roosters and 2 hens, they REFUSE to roost in the barn at night!! Instead they enjoy roosting on my front porch!! I wouldn't really care if they would pick up their droppings in the mornings but, they don't!!! Is there any way to vear them away from the front porch?

 

[birdlover]

I would just pick them up and take them to the coop until they get the message...or...is that what you're doing now?

 

[scooter147]

I would keep them locked in the barn for a few days to re-home them to the barn.
You don't want them roosting on your porch, they will soon become a late night snack for some predator.

 

[chickenfever]

Quote:
I agree, keep them locked in for awhile and they will get the idea.

 

[swtangel321]

Do you give them "treats" on the front porch ??

 

[sheila80]

Yes, I move them nightly from my porch to the barn. By morning they are all BACK!!!
I will try locking them up for a few nights, feel bad if I were to do it during the day. I have let them free range since they were chicks. Same as for my four ducks.
As for "treats" I found my kids feeding them cereal, crackers, and bread. They tried feeding the ducks dog food, now I have a duck that thinks he's a dog. (He wags his tail feathers like a dog would)

 

[scooter147]

Sheila,
So they are not locked up tight in the barn at night?, if not I suggest you spend 5 or 10 minutes in the predator and pest index of the forum.
Poultry really need to be in secured enclosure every night, many of us here have learned the hard way when it comes to predators. you may go along for weeks, months maybe even a year without any problems but eventually a predator will find them.
I just don't want you to awake to a feather filled yard and hardache for you and your kids.

 

[sheila80]

Thank you, the only time we really lost our feathers was when they were babies. Other than that, my husbands old hound protects them for some reason.

 

[scooter147]

Hound dogs work! The dogs have accepted the birds as part of the pack.
My dad had an old blue tick hound for years that got tied to the coop door each night, dad never did lose a chicken as long as that dog was alive and never shut the door and never lost a bird.

 

[gritsar]

Sheila, I'm afraid that it really won't work to just lock them up only at night. You'll have to lock them up 24/7 for about a week to re-train them that the barn is home.
I hated to do it too, as mine are used to free-ranging but once their new coop was built it had to be done before they learned to call the new coop home. Now they free-range all day and then put themselves up in the coop at night. All I have to do is go and lock them in.