Your first night with new chickens

When you bring a new set of
chickens home, or move a flock to a new coop, it’s important to take a
little extra time to watch them going to bed.  The move was
probably a bit traumatic for both you and your flock, and chances are
you’d like to turn in early, but it’s a lot easier to get chickens into
the habit of roosting in their coop if they don’t spend their first
night perching in a bush.



Later, having chickens
in the coop at night will keep them warm, dry, and safe from
predators.  If they’ve accepted the coop as home base, your hens
will be more likely to lay eggs where you can find them, and it’ll make
everyone less likely to fly over fences and wander away.  Night is
also the best time to snag chickens who are going in the pot, and if
you can grab
them right off a perch in the coop, that duty will go much more
smoothly too.



So we took the time to herd
our month old chicks into their coop the first night, then watched them
the next evening to ensure the youngsters went inside on their
own.  A few chicks thought it might be more fun to perch outside,
but once a critical mass accumulated inside the coop, even those
mavericks went in.



Mark suspects that the
issue we’ve had with getting chicks to go in the coop during their
first few nights is due to the fact that it gets dark inside early and
chickens don’t like walking inside if they can’t see.  A carefully
placed window or two might make next year’s night training sessions
easier.