[pigeonpie]

We got some new ex-battery hens on Sunday and they haven't quite got the hang of taking themselves to bed yet.  The first couple of nights we went out before dark and lifted them all in.  Last night 3 of them had taken themselves to the bed but the rest were stood around the hen house waiting for us and were overjoyed when we picked them up and popped them in to the coup.  I think they had been waiting for us!   
Tonight we went out for a meal at the pub and didn't get back till it was dark.  2 of the girls were safely tucked up, one had got as far as the pop hole and stopped there and the others were scattered over the garden (luckily within the electric poultry netting).  We easily found all but one of them.  With torches and peering under all the bushes we still couldn't find poor Jennifer. 
So, we called in reinforcements...  Nellie the labrador found her within a minute and Jennifer is now tucked up with all the others.   

Tomorrow night we're going to try putting a light in the hen house to try and encourage them in and are not going out!  Nellie will be on standby, just in case! 

[gracie]

Personally I wouldn't add anything that wasnt going to be permanent as you may only get a step backwards when you remove it. If I had the time I would just leave it 10 mins every night before I helped them to allow them the time to do it themselves

[pigeonpie]

That's what I was hoping to do and have tried leaving it later each night this week, I'm just starting to worry that the house is so dark that they can't see when they get in there and panic, hence the one in the doorway.  We're going away in a weeks time and a friend is looking after them so I really need to get them trained by then.

The other girls I've had have always got the hang of it within a few days. 

[Lindeggs]

Can you rig up some permanent, very dim lighting in the coop with a timer?  My coop has large windows but it still gets darker in the coop much faster than out in the run.  I've seen a poor chicken completely miss the perch when she tried to jump up on it, I think because it got dark faster than she expected.  Chickens really don't have good night vision!

If you could get a small, cheap solar garden light where the solar panel was able to be positioned outside the coop and the light inside, could you leave it in there permanently?  That would avoid Gracie's concern that your training would go backwards when you removed the light.

[New shoot]

Is the coop big enough you could shut them in there for a day with food and water so they fix on there as their home Pigeonpie or have you already tried this? 

I'm just thinking that if they are ex-bats the concept of home and outside is a lot to grasp and they just have not learned normal behaviour like roosting.

[pigeonpie]

Thank you all for your help and suggestions and apologies for not getting back to you all sooner.
When we first got them we shut them in the house to imprint the idea of home to them and it seemed to work as they all seemed to know where home was but just couldn't be bothered to take themselves to bed, prefering a kiss and cuddle from us before we tucked them up!  We had a spare solar light and so fitted it inside their house and have popped out to turn it on at about 8.30 each night for the last few days.  Each day we have ended up with more and more taking themselves to bed with the others eagerly stood around the coup waiting for us to pop them in and finally tonight they were all in.
Result!