One of our chickens loves the outdoor life even more than her sisters. We haven’t given her a name: she’s just one of four called ‘chicken’. Anyhow, every night when the other hens go up the ladder and bed down in the coop she goes up and beds down on it.
We head out there at ten to make sure they’re all safely on their perches and she’s invariably hunkered down on the roof. The only two times she’s gone in to sleep of her own accord was when it was raining. So we take her down and pop her inside with the others, to the tune of much squawking and flapping of wings.
But should we, and how much longer will it continue? We’re not closing the coop door at night at the moment as the sun is up earlier than we are, and the chickens rise with it. The last time we shut them in at night they greeted the 4am dawn with a terrible row that went on for three hours until we finally let them out. Keeping the door open solves that problem but clearly doesn’t encourage this little chook to head indoors to bed unless the weather is particularly bad.
So what do we do in the winter when it may be dry but freezing? We have to shut in the other hens then, so do we let her make up her own mind about heading indoors to sleep before the door is pulled to, or is she now so conditioned to us putting her in when the sun has gone down that she’s forgotten how to do it herself?
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I would say cross that bridge when you come to it. You might find that, as it gets colder, she decides a nice, toasty house with some buddies to snuggle up with is appealing, all on her own.
Where we got our chickens from, they live in the trees, safe from predators its there natural environment, i wouldnt worry, it will move in when its cold
We’re not particularly worried – we just want to make sure she’s not being kept out of the coop by the other hens. We’re fairly sure she’s not as she sometimes heads up there to bed before any of them even go into the coop. It is strange, though.