Chick 'Training'

We are in the midst of ‘training’ our chicks to sleep in safety at night.  I thought this would be a natural born instinct of theirs but apparently not. 

 

For the first 6 weeks of their life, we kept a heat lamp on the chicks twenty-four hours a day.  At the end of six weeks, they have their feathers so they can now control their own body heat.  At that point, we switched to a regular light bulb but instead of sleeping at night, they were busy chasing moths that were attracted to the light.  I finally convinced Mike that we should eliminate that light bulb.  And sure enough, I was proved right.  The seven baby chicks all were sleeping when the sun went down. 

 

Of course, they did not do it right.  Instead of sleeping in the safety of their coop, one slept on the roof of the coop and the others were in a pile by the door.  So Mike added a ‘roost’ inside their coop.  it was just a board that runs across the coop about 12 inches up in the air. 

The new roost is a board that can be seen through the window.  

We had high hopes that this would solve our problem but no.  The next night they were all sleeping in a heap along the side of the chicken coop.  Mike picked them up one by one and moved them onto the roost inside the chicken coop.  We hoped that by putting them on the roost at night they would get into the idea of sleeping here. 

 

The next night Mike went to check on them and they were all sleeping outside again.  This time though they were balanced on the edge of the window or vent cover.  It is like a shutter for the air vent and we keep it open so it is sticking out of the side of the coop.  I have to give them credit.  It is a roost although, not a safe one, as it is outside vulnerable to a predator or they could get wet and cold from rain.  Mike again moved them one by one unto the roost inside their coop. 

The next night Mike could not enter the chick enclosure.  This time they were all sleeping on the full size entrance door we use to get to their coop.  Fortunately, while Mike was standing there contemplating how he was to get inside, one of the guys fell off the door ledge and cause the others to lose their balance too.  

Thankfully, that was the last time the chicks tried to sleep there.  Their 'favorite' place right now is on top of the coop.  However, Mike has consistently moved them off the roof and into the coop every night and things are changing.  Now we only find one or two birds on the roof and the rest are already inside the coop on the roost.  

This has been going on for over two weeks now.  It seems longer.  Until these chicks learn to sleep inside the coop at night, we cannot prepare them to move into the big coop with their neighbors the big hens. That is going to be a big enough social adjustment without also learning how to choose a safe sleeping place at night.