My hens are 14 weeks old, mutts, and very pampered. In fact you guys are going to laugh at me when I tell you that I go out every eve. same time and carry each bird to the coop. I now have 12 birds and this is a drag! The problem is, the coop is in dense shade, the run is lighter and brighter and by the time they would start to go in it is too dark in there. The coop Is large, 10 feet long, 6 feet deep, and 6 feet high (It is our old pigeon coop and our old turkey coop put together) The entire front of the coop is wire, the door is even covered in wire, so it should be brighter in there it is too shady tho. This winter I will cover the front with plywood to keep it warmer and that will make the darkness worse. I had tree branch perches, now thanks to CJR I have new 2x4's( they do love them) The birds like their coop in the day time. They have a large run, 100 feet of 7 foot high welded wire fence, with chicken wire over the entire top to keep out predators. The only thing in their run for them to roost on is a huge gardenia bush which they also like to get under. I have left the birds out all night to see if that would teach them a lesson, to no avail, they loved it. I could prune the gardenia so they can't sit in it. I could also put a light in the coop but I have read that light all night is unhealthy. I can't cut down the shade, it gets hot here. Soooooooo what would you do? I could leave them out but winter will be bad and even tho we did a good job on the fence, we only buried it about 3 inches underground and that would not prevent a dog from digging under. Soooooooo any help guys? By the way I am fairly new to The Coop and I can't tell you how valuable it has been to me, when I first found it I spent hours reading old posts and now I look forward to reading the new ones every day! Thanks!

I would probably make a window in the coop first, facing south I think. Make it big enough so that it doesn't become dark in the coop before the sun goes down. That might help. You CAN put a light inside the coop, but with a timer on it(you can buy a timer at a home depot or Lowes probably). After you do that, the chickens should soon go in by themselves. Hope this helps you some. Daniel

There must be a logical reason why the chickens don't want to be in their coop at night. We'll need more info to get to the bottom of it. Have you checked to see what temperature the coop is at sunset? Is it possible that there is some sort of animal disturbing them? Do they lay in the coop? What breed of chickens do you have? Where are they roosting now, in the bush or just out on the ground?

Thank you to Mark(Pollo) and Daniel. By the way Mark, because you were already using the name Pollo, I chose Gallina which also means chicken in spanish. Daniel I don't know if you read my earlier post on July 10, but I went into more detail. Actually probably too much detail, if you keed more info. let me know. I appreciate everyone's help! Also, the whole front of the coop is wire, and does face south but it is under very dense shade, dark but cool!

i have a simmalar problem, my chickens go up in a pine tree, we tried cutting the bottem branches off, so now the lowest branch is approx. 4 or 5 feet from the ground. usally about 5 of 10 will go in the pen at night, the rest are up in the tree. my dad has to get them out every night with a tree trimmer because they go up so high, we'have tried hitting them, not too hard of corse, not enough to hurt them. but that dosen't faze them. we are at a loss.
thanks for any help
rachel

There is supposed to be a message on here from Rachel, jul. 11, 1:48 p.m. it is listed but I can't actually find the message, what happens? Rachel would you mind trying again? Thanks.

Oh well, after I posted my note to Rachel hers appeared along with my new post, Oh well, sorry, I must be messing up some how.

Rachel, the only suggestion I have for you is to clip one of their wings, only on one side, then they are off ballance and can't fly. That should work for you but not for me, mine are roosting in a gardinia bush, only about three feet high, they do look cute in it tho, all twelve, but I am tired of the carrying in at night. They seem to be such creatures of habit! The trick must be to change the old habit. How?

This may sound stupid, but have you considered getting rid of the bush? Just dig it up or something and put an artificial roosting post that you can remove at night and maybe that will induce them to go into the coop.
ALSO...put food and water ONLY in the coop. They'll have to go there get it. You may have to do a little retraining but once they realized the goodies are only in the coop, they'll go there.

I did just that! I already was watering and feeding them in the coop, took care of the bush and have perches I remove in the eve. they have no choice but to go in at night now. It worked! Thanks!