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| Clockwise from feeder - Leghorn, Silkie, Barred Rock, Unknown (we think) |
After getting the chickens home the other day, I started to wonder how they know to go in the hen house at night if they've never used one before. I also wondered about the angle of the ramp - was it too steep? The first night I decided that I would spend the first week teaching them that this was their home, so when I let them out to roam the yard, they would return at night - instead of roosting in a tree or something else. About a half an hour before dark, I started catching chickens and putting them in the hen house. I caught one and put her in and as I'm catching a second, a third one(barred rock) goes in on her own. That was very gratifying. The fourth one, the silkie, was a little harder to catch, but she was the only one to actually use the roost the first night - the other three huddled together on the floor. We weren't at home around dark on Tuesday, but when I went and checked on them later that night, the silkie and the barred rock were roosting in the house, and the two others were huddled together on the ground. Wednesday I got all four in the hen house, but when I checked on them in the morning, the white one - one of the two either huddled together or on the ground - was on the ground by herself, while the other three were on the roost.
Tonight I went to put them up tonight and the barred rock was already on the roost. I have no doubt that the silkie will be there as well. It's just a question of what the other two will do.
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