[Nicki85]

Everything is still very new as I've only had the chooks for a week tomorrow.  They have settled in really well, there has been minimum pecking and no blood shed!  The two legbars as predicted by the breeder are alot more flighty than their Burford Brown sisters and spend alot of time running away from everything in a melodramatic style! 

I've found their favourite treat so far is grapes... They still won't take from our hands but they are getting closer.  It's so funny to watch them chasing each other round for the grapes!!  The breeder said not to feed corn as a treat for another couple of weeks so we will see how that goes down in a month or so 

My main question is about bed time though.  They start to "pace" the line of fencing from 7.30pm onwards and begin jumping in (and then out) of the coop.  It takes them a while to all be in the coop and the minute they are all in I shut them up for the night.  This is usually 8.15pm.

Am I doing the right thing shutting them up straight away?  I'm worried they will associate jumping into the coop with being shut in... I was wondering if I should leave it till say 9pm when they are all settled in there.  The only problem is that they still seem to be looking for other places to roost like the top of the house  :blink: They don't stay up there for long normally though.  So leaving it open till 9pm may mean they try and roost on the roof or something! 

We are going to give them a health check saturday night- we haven't handelled them yet to allow them to settle so hopefully it will go smoothly!

[gracie]

This week mine have been going really early, 7.30 ish, but their 4 fellas went off to another home last week so maybe they are unsettled, most people say dusk but one or two are later. If you are at home I would try leaving it until a bit later as I know mine originally took a few days to settle but then just fell into their own routine. Obviously you may have to rethink if roosting on the roof becomes a problem. I think the trouble is the evenings can seem darker on cooler days, then you get a really sunny one which lengthens the day again.

[OpiumEater]

Mine usually are in by dusk, but sometimes I'm a bit slow closing the door and it's 9 o'clock before you know it and I just pop down, say night night and close door.

But I have an Eglu Go and there's no where else to roost apart from in the Go.

[SurreyLass]

Gosh - my girls are dirty stop outs - its not before 9.30pm at the moment - last night more like 9.40pm - if I go up earlier, they come hurtling back out of the coop to see me! They do a lot of to-ing and fro-ing before BOTH of them go in an stay in - it makes me giggle! I also have to take the long route out to them, up the side of the house, and then cross the garden behind the view of the coop - its like a military operation!

[Abacus]

Gosh - my girls are dirty stop outs - its not before 9.30pm at the moment - last night more like 9.40pm - if I go up earlier, they come hurtling back out of the coop to see me! They do a lot of to-ing and fro-ing before BOTH of them go in an stay in - it makes me giggle! I also have to take the long route out to them, up the side of the house, and then cross the garden behind the view of the coop - its like a military operation!

Exactly the same problem with my Rhodies here - its source of constant amusement for the neighbours to see me attempting to creep silently up the garden path. The Bantams always go to bed early and are no problem at all!

[jinty1911]

Mine are early bedders and are usually settled by 8pm even if the sun is still shining 

[Dominic]

Mine want to go to bed just when it first starts to get a little dark, around 8.30 at the moment.
At the moment, they still think bed is inside the house, so cluster around the patio doors.
I tend to lock them in the run around 8pm and close the coop at 9, left it open last night

[bantam novice]

Mine go in about 8.30 at the moment.

[LizzyChick]

Mine go to bed at dusk, but they never roost on the roosting pole we've given them. They insist on going into the nestboxes to sleep or they huddle up in the coop.

[joyfull]

at the moment my tree dwellers go to roost about 8.30, the rest about 9ish and any stragglers get rounded up by the guinea fowl about 9.15 and ordered to bed, then the guineas take themselves off to roost  .

[grumpydad]

not early enough, most of the 6 go in by about 9.30, but one wont go it till it really starts to go dark. am i glad i put a light in the run to sort them out at night. luckily, they tend to go by the daylight, as opposed to the light in the run

[Raven81]

Ive had mine almost 2 weeks now, and on advice taken on here I stopped trying to put them to bed and let them take themselves. This seems to be between 9.30 and 10!! When it rained the other day they were in by 8.30 tho. As they are in their run from around 6.30 I don't have to worry about them going somewhere they shouldn't.

[Geo]

It gets dark later up in scotland, mine are going in just after 10-00 and back out just after 05-00 in the morning into their run.

[curries]

I have one of those fantastic automatic light activated doors so I get away with doing nothing, they normally shuffle in at about 9pm and then the door closes itself about 9.30pm, lazy i know, but it's so easy.

[VickyW]

I have one of those fantastic automatic light activated doors so I get away with doing nothing, they normally shuffle in at about 9pm and then the door closes itself about 9.30pm, lazy i know, but it's so easy.

Do you not get worried that a straggler got locked out?