Hi all,

I put some new birds out in my egg mobile about a month or so a go and I still have a bunch that refuse to go inside each night. I have an automatic door, and have never had an issue getting new birds to learn when it's time to go to bed. These new ones are underneath the mobile every night, but they just wont climb the ladder and go inside. Does anyone know something I can try to get them to go to bed? Having to corral 50 chickens every night and throw them inside is starting to suck.

Thanks!

put them inside the coop for the night and block of the door and wait til its around 9 to let back out in the morning if it
doesn't work the first time repeat and put them in a little earlier each time til they do it on their own hope this helps

Yeah I was gonna try that. I have a room on the inside of the mobile that can be closed off and they spent 3 days in there when I moved them outside, but apparently they didn't get the picture.

yeah but just the night and outside in the morning will train them what time to come in

Some things that may be the cause:
If you have roosters, you may have too many. If I have more than two, they harass the girls the most at night (when the girls are trying to go to roost) and when they finally decide to go to bed, they fight for the best spot and end up knocking other birds off. My coop is always so much more peaceful after we send a few roos to freezer camp.

You may just have too many birds altogether. The more crowded it is, the harder it is to get the chickens to bed.

If you have an automatic door, maybe it is closing too soon for them to get into the coop. Especially now that the days are getting longer...

They have never slept on a roost before; I was once a little slow in moving some chickens from the grow-out pen to the coop and they were so used to sleeping in a pile they had a hard time learning to roost. I had to physically place them on the roosts for almost a week straight. Some of them still struggle a bit to get up there after several months. I have month old chicks in there who are better at getting up on the roosts than that group because they watched their mommas.

Also, not sure how you are getting them into the coop when you put them in there but if you are aggravated about it and it shows, it might come across to the chickens as if they "are being locked in this place by some angry giant". I know this may seem silly but if you do it in a way to convince them that this is their 'safe haven' they might be more willing to go. My ducks were a pain to get into their pen for a long time and I would often get aggravated and angry. I finally just waited until they were ready to go (almost dark, they like to wait until as late as possible) and started saying "Ok duckies, time for bed" in a sing song way. Now they go in on their own and I don't have to corral them at all.

Sometimes chickens are just weird and decide they don't like something. You just have to retrain them to like it. I find most chickens are easily influenced by moving them where you want them just a few times. never takes more than a week.

Hope this helps!

You could try putting a small light inside the coop. The light should draw them inside.

Lock them in for 2 days, with food and water, of course. They'll bond with the space and should come back to roost at night.

Additionally, is there any way you can block them from roosting underneath? If you could put a temporary fence around the base of your egg mobile, they will get frustrated trying to get under there.

Ash Harper wrote:You could try putting a small light inside the coop. The light should draw them inside.

Yep. I always have the light on in the evening and my free rangers never fail to come inside...except the broody ladies who make their nests in secret places

Lock them inside for a couple days