On a morning when they come out the shed (i have 3 chickens) they whine and moan until they are let out of their pen which is starting at 6am at the mo but will shortly start at 5am. I have asked about this before and tried the advice of just leaving then to moan and eventually they get used to being left inside if they realize no one is paying attention, which works initially but now they will moan for an hour before stepping up the volume to a screech which is when for the sake of the neighbours I let them out. We are due to go away soon and our chicken sitter will not be getting up at these stupid hours to let them out so is there anything else we can do to try and get them used to the pen. When they do come out of the pen they often wander round for five mins before sitting under their shelter near the patio doors for the next couple of hours or on the floor in front of the doors so it's not that they are desperate to roam the garden. What kind of distractions can I put in their pen? The other issue is that the bluebell always screeches twice before going in to lay her egg which I don't think there is much I can do about that apart from pick her up and take her into the nesting box pronto, and she will also start hollering when our black pearl goes in to lay an egg but yet she's not bothered if the maran goes in to lay an egg. I gather this will be to do with their roles in the gang. I feel I have very clingy chickens !!! If I were to make the shed totally dark inside as there are currently some chinks of light they can see would they accept this and keep quiet until they were let out or do they know it's light outside as I notice some people let their chickens out at 8am but mine kick off still when they see daylight? Any advice, suggestions or volunteers to come and get up at 5 am gratefully received as its getting very tiring and worrying (that we are annoying the neighbours). Thanks