how to stop the new pullets roosting ON the hen house

[tlck9]

Hi All

With all the newbies I have, never have they tried to roost on top of the chicken house, trouble is i'm worried they are going to injure themselves. they cant quite get up to the top and tumble back down.

They are about 13 weeks, light sussex, i think from a barn environment which obviously they could roost much higher

No amount of coxing them into the door is helping, although one has mastered it already, the other 3 are intent on killing themselves by trying to gain maximum height!

Any ideas, other than catching them and popping them through the door before they launch themselves

[petal]

have you clipped one of their wings yet?

[kathyd]

I've had the same thing to some extent tlck9 - each time I've had newbies (twice now) they've been loathe to go inside the coop, but because they're afraid of the others I think. First time, the adults set up a rota system to attack the newbies every time they tried to get in. This time they're more laid back, but do peck one of the newbs which squeaks for hours after lights out and stops the old girls getting their beauty sleep, which they don't appreciate (to be honest, I'd probably have a peck at her too!). So I did go down the road of putting them in through the side door to start with (for ages with the first 2 new ones), and stopped the others from attacking them as far as possible, and last night the 2 latest ones had made their own way inside and were perched in the corner by the time I got there to put them to bed. Our coop has a little ramp up to it - don't know if this makes a difference 'cos they still go 'up' to bed? But prior to last night I've had to move them off the roof of their temporary quarantine house, the main coop AND the top of the big door which closes off the run from the rest of the outbuilding for the night! They looked so proud of themselves I felt really mean . In terms of hurting themselves, it's terrifying to watch but mine do seem to be quite good fliers when they feel like it even though they're quite small - I don't know how much of a risk they stand of actually hurting themselves by sliding off their roof? Although it may be something you want to discourage anyway I guess... I have 2 adults currently sleeping on the coop roof (and pushing the newbs off when they tried to join them), and I'm fine with it for now but once winter gets here I want them inside again - I foresee a battle of wills coming up in a few weeks ....

[tlck9]

Thanks for the replies, I thought it was a bit of a silly question really, but I wanted reassurance!, I've never had newbies trying to get up on top before.

Petal, no I havent clipped their wings, bit scared of doing that, but then they have a fully roofed run 16 square metres when we're not there.

I had one of my hybrid bid for escape by flying over the greenhouse but after a day or so she stopped and settled in well.

I've moved the slab today, so if they try it tonight they hhit soft ground, they went with such a thump

[jessmorris]

Wait until it gets cold/rainy, then they'll be in. All my new Orloff growers roosted outside on the coop roof until we started getting some real howlers overnight. Then they braved the 'old girls' and now all except one roost inside the coop.

[chris]

I've had to put netting on top of mine to stop them, does my nut in - they mess the coop right up roosting on top of it!

[petal]

and it coulkd be worse- they could be flaming turkeys that fly up into a tree and you have to climb up to get them at 8pm and how do they do it when they have clipped wings?