Are my hens dirty stopouts?

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Icemaiden

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It's official; I'm now a keeper of hens :-)08
I'll post some pics to the photos board, but in the mean time, a question: why don't my hens want to go to bed at night?

At dusk today, after my first 24 hours as a hen owner, I went up to the run, not expecting 3 ex-batts to have a clue about putting themselves to bed. I wasn't wrong in that regard...
I put my newly adopted Araucana (see separate post) to bed, as last night I'd come home with the ex-batts & found her asleep in the run. She settled down in the coop without protest.

I then tried picking the ex-batts up, taking them up the ramp & in through the pop-hole, but before I could put the 2nd one to bed, the first one had come back out again!

Not wanting to stress them out at bed time, I just waited in the run with them, expecting them to show signs of getting sleepy as the evening bird chorus and the daylight both faded, but they were too busy enjoying their freedom, eating, drinking & foraging. In due course, the VSB closed the coop door, so I had to take the side off the coop & put them to bed that way, as I did last night.

(By the time I got them home from the BHWT rehoming day yesterday, it was dark, so they were sleepy & went straight to bed, not being interested in drinking anything. Two of them had found their way out into the big wide world by the time I got up this morning...)

Please can you tell me:-
Should they be ready for bed by the time it gets dark?
Are they suffering a kind of jet-lag, being used to life in a barn where it's light for 18 hours a day?
Are they just afraid that if they're shut up in a coop at night, they might lose the freedom that they've only just discovered?
If I have to keep putting them to bed by taking the side off the coop, how will they know how to put themselves to bed when I'm at work until gone 6pm in the evening?

Expertise appreciated please!
 
They don't know light and day having been kept under low red light all their lives (to reduce cannibalism). They need to be encouraged into the coop by lighting it with a torch and then shutting them in before removing the torch. They will soon get the hang of it. But their entire lives hare been dull day, with no night. So obviously they are struggling to adjust as they were hatched into the same regime, as ours are but changed at a week old.
 
They do need time to adjust and much of this is due to the light. There are different ways of rearing but most have extended days to ensure their growth rates are good before going into the cages. You will need to persevere at putting them into the coop until they get the hang of it and as Chris has said, use a torch inside the house so they can see their way in, even if you have to push them. They don't like going into the unknown in the dark.
Is it possible to over-ride the auto closer for a time until they adjust as they really do need to learn to go into the coop themselves.
 
Its also important to get them to actually walk up the slope or ladder for themselves, rather than be lifted in, so they know the way. Use the torch as suggested, and try penning them before bedtime into a much smaller area around the coop entrance, perhaps you have a length of wire mesh left over for this? Then, what I've done with new pullets is to gently move the mesh so as to herd them towards the entrance, this helps them to take the big decision about what is, for them, very new technology!
 
Hi there. I find with new hens it is absolutely normal to have to put them to bed manually for the first few nights. After that they should consider the coop their 'bed' and mostly will go in at dusk anyway. Best not to give them treats near bedtime, as this can encourage them to stay out later to eat it all up, and then get locked out with the automatic door!
 
Hi Icemaiden - congrats on the new hens :-)08 I found i had to put mine to bed for about 5 days, then got a little battery operated cupboard light and put that in and then they went to bed. I did that for 2 nights and then after that they put themselves to bed 8-)
 
Sounds as though I'd better nip out tomorrow lunchtime & buy a cheap battery operated light for the inside of the coop then, & put some rechargable batteries in it. I don't normally get home until well after dark, & there's a limit to how many times my boss'll let me go home early & work from home for a few hours...
I'm afraid I'll get home tomorrow evening & find them outside in the rain, having just seen the weather forecast. They're not used to being handled yet, so I doubt if they'd appreciate being blow-dried!
 
When they get inside, are they choosing to perch? If they are in the nestboxes you could train them in good habits from the start by blocking the boxes off with big flower pots.
 
I think most of them are perching now; I guess that's the "advantage" of enriched cages rather than the old 'isolation cells'. Energiser, the "head hen", looked as though she'd had the opportunity to perch before,though I'm not sure if Varta & Duracell had.

This evening when I got home (having taken the batteries out of the VSB this morning so that the door would stay open), Millie (the araucana) and one of the ex-batts (too dark to tell which one) had both put themselves to bed :D

I shone a torch in the coop to encourage the other two in out of the rain, at which point the one roosting ex-batt decided that as it was light again, it must be time to get up, & promptly came back out again :lol:

All three did eventually make their way up the ramp to bed under their own steam though. They're just like kids, who'll stay up unless you chivvy them to bed!
 
So you think these came out of the first of the 'enriched' cages Icemaiden ? If so, they are in as bad if not worse condition than those from traditional cages.
 
I guess they'll have come from the enriched cages, yes. Two of the three were pretty well feathered; it's just Varta who's missing a fair percentage of feathers, mainly from her wings.

Their combs are colouring up nicely, & all of the hens put themselves to bed tonight before the door closed & before I'd had the chance to put a flower pot into the nest box.

I can see the problem with a flowerpot in the nest box being that I won't have got up in time to take it out in the morning, before they want to lay (if they do), so they'll probably lay in the coop.
Is it more important to get them out of the habit of sleeping in the nest box first, & then worry about where they lay their eggs?
 
Can you take it out after they have perched Icemaiden? Laying outside the nest box brings a host of other more serious problems and you don't want to be there.
 
They don't get up very early at the moment, do they? They soon seem to settle in to a routine of laying at about the same time each day, and you may well find that they lay later in the morning anyway. The flowerpots are only temporary, at least with young pullets I've found they catch on within a week and thereafter use the perches. Unless you are having eggs actually laid on the floor before you let them out, I would carry on with the pots for a while and try to solve that potential problem first. Or remove them once they've settled, as Chris suggests.
 
One of the girls is mostly laying in the coop anyway at the moment. Another (Varta, we think) always lays in the nest box; this morning she moved the flower pot out of the way first! The other sometimes lays in the next box & sometimes in the coop. Apart from the first day, they don't seem to be laying elsewhere.

Chris: what are the "other problems" that you didn't elucidate on? :-)11
 
I think disordered laying and roosting patterns, both for place and time, are to be expected with exbatts coping with the change in lighting and other conditions. At least Varta has got the idea, good girl. Yes, if they are laying on the floor you do need to make sure they at least have access to nestboxes, so there's no excuse. Maybe removing the pots in the evening, after they've settled, if this is possible for you? A bore, I know, but it might help for a trial period at least. Have the eggs they are laying got strong shells? It's more likely to be a problem if the shells are soft enough to break as then they may learn to eat the contents.
Are they actually perching in the coop at night, or just sitting on the floor?
 
I think they're all perching now, judging from the location of the poo in the mornings...
I don't have a problem with taking the flower pot out at night; I like to go up at night after the girls have gone to bed to check that the VSB has closed & that the girls are all safely tucked up for the night.

Apart from one softie, the shells all seem pretty solid. When I go back to work after the holiday, I'll only be able to collect eggs that're laid first thing or in the nest box, as the girls will be in bed by the time I get home from work (hence the VSB), so I'll be concerned about egg eating if they're still laying in the coop. Fingers crossed that they're not by then.

A friend, who first got me thinking about getting hens, says that her girls never lay in the coop, never mind the nest box. She's certainly familiar with hunting for her egs & not knowing how old they are. Being restricted to a run, mine don't have so many places to hide them...
 
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