Okie dokie. One problem down and another one to go. I hope you all don't get tired of hearing from me.

My chickens are free range. They usually go into the coop at night. That is where I have their feed and waterer. I don't keep the light on at night in the coop. And the hens are laying eggs in the coop.

My chickens have taken to roosting on the railing on my front porch at night. There must be something about my porch...1st the planters and now the railing. I really don't mind them doing that except they poop everywhere. I didn' know that chickens could poop while they are sleeping.

Would do I do???? I know that I can't litter train them so I guess it's off the porch for them. But they are really cute all lined up on the rail. I think I will take a picture of them. Okay, so how do I get them back to the coop at night? They started this when we had a full moon. Do you think that makes a difference? We also have a flood light on the corner of the house. Could they be drawn to the light? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm so glad I fou

-- Karen in SC (clutterfre@aol.com), December 17, 2000

Answers

Diapers perhaps?

-- JT in Florida (gone2seed@hotmail.com), December 17, 2000.

My rooster herds the hens to the chicken tractor every night at dusk and I shut the door at 7 pm. My son left his window half down one night and a rooster thought his bench seat looked pretty good for a roost. I'll never forget the look on his face that morning and he never forgets to roll up his windows anymore ! Ahhh, the many joys of Homesteading. Ain't life Grand !!!!

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), December 17, 2000.

Karen, chickens are more or less creatures of habit. Try shutting them up in their coop for about a week to get them used to spending the night in it again. Does your chicken house have enough roosts for them? Are the roosts nice and sturdy so that they don't roll or sway under the chickens weight? They may also have moved to your porch if predators are hanging around the coop at night. They figure your porch is safer. I bought some smallish white hens once and first time I let them out of the coop they never went back in again...never could catch them either. They roosted in the barn rafters every night. They lasted a lot longer than I would have thought...at least until an owl took up residence.

-- Amanda in Mo (aseley@townsqr.com), December 17, 2000.

My chooks free range during the day and tuck themselves into their pens at dusk. What works for me is this: all new adults, and chicks feathered up to go outside, are kept in the pens for 3 weeks; Guineas are kept in the pens for 6 weeks. Then they are turned out with the others. The chicks hatched under hens are kept in the pen until they feather up.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), December 18, 2000.

I had to "train" my chickens, but now they all march themselves into the coop when the sun sets. Before that, I had to herd them in, but they were in an enclosed yard so it was a little easier (but not much - my wife still chuckles about the "chicken rodeo").

Is the coop large enough where you could keep them in it for a few days? Let them get used to roosting in it, then let them free range again and see what happens.

-- Eric in TN (eric_m_stone@yahoo.com), December 21, 2000.

Karen, I agree with Amanda about the predators. We had the same problem with our chickens. For over a year, they faithfully went to roost in their coop every night ..... and then the coyotes came. We didn't realize what was going on. They were roosting on our truck tires (our truck is lifted) and just about anywhere else they could find except the coop. We finally found some feathers in the coop and discovered that we had predators around the coop and realized that this was why they weren't going in there any more. We had to neutralize the predator threat and then lock them in the coop for a few days (after we cleaned it extensively) to get them to again go there at night. Good luck!!

-- Lisa (tepeeclan@nidlink.com), December 23, 2000.