Hey now! Not sure this is the right forum for this question...but i couldn't find anything on sustainable living. We recently got a mama hen and 3 chicks as pets and for egg laying. My husband built a nice coop, and a large pen for them. For the first two weeks, they seemed quite happy running around the pen and every evening at dusk they would all climb into the coop together. We locked the coop at night for their safety. So, about a week ago mama hen flew the coop. We could not get her back in the pen, and allowed her to free range. She began laying eggs, so we assumed that was why she left the chicks. We were hoping that she'd come back to the coop at night...but she flew up into the trees and sleeps their instead. We've been allowing the chicks to freerange, and each night they go right back to the pen and up into the coop. Then a couple days ago one of the chicks (not tiny babies, cornish hen sized) refused to get into the coop and spent the night in the trees. Last night when i went to round them all up, they were ALL up in the trees. i'm so worried that i'll wake up one morning and something will have eaten all my chickens. My husband and i are new to chicken raising, but everything we'd read said the chickens would want to nest in a coop. The coop is large, very secure and safe, with nesting boxes, hay and places to roost. Why are my chickens sleeping in the trees??
We use to raise alot of game chickens and unless you keep thier wings clipped they will roost in the trees
damn things love trees. Yah like catfish said, you'll have to keep the wings clipped .... problem now is, getting them to fall asleep in the coop at least one night... so you can go in and catch them while they are sleeping ... or if you are fast... do it in the daytime, throw some food in and when they go in the cage, close the door on them...... then go in and catch them one by one while clipping the wings. You probably wont get them all at the same time but ... its a process... lol... good luck
