At the weekend, me and my girlfriend went out for the day in London. By the time we got back it was dark already, and I needed to change the food and water for the chickens. When I went in the run I found all of them sleeping on the roof! I propped the door open with a stick and put them inside.
The chickens actually looked quite cute huddled together on the roof
The next day I thought I’d better check on the chickens and they were on the roof again. Last night they went in by themselves so I thought they had stopped trying to sleep outside, but tonight I looked out the window and they were all out there again, so that’s 3 nights out of 4 that they haven’t managed to make it back inside.
I propped the door open with a stick, and with a little encouragement they went back inside
I think that they have not adjusted to the shorter days properly, so I will probably need to adjust the sensor on the door opener/closer. I don’t really mind putting them back in though – it’s all part of the fun of keeping chickens…
They do look so cute. They really are a bit dim though.
You might find you have a red mite infestation. Our chickens did the same thing when we were infested – they refused to go into the coop and started sleeping outdoors.
Just realised from reading back on your previous posts that you’ve been fighting red mites since July! Sorry! This is the first time on your blog and started from the current posts and am working back. Poultry Shield will kill about 96% of the mites but just about every week you’ll have to spray and clean now.
I’m 12 weeks down the road with my infestation – and have now accepted I will never be rid of them. i just have to manage them.
I have actually succeeded in getting rid of my mites. I found that the poultry shield was pretty good – but I think in the end what got rid of them was spreading a lot of diatom powder around the inside of their coop.
When I had the mites I would spray with poultry shield once or twice a week. I remember, towards the end I was mucking out the chickens one day and the mites were definitely still there, and I thought that it was about time to spray with poultry shield again. When I came back a few days later the last of the mites had gone, so I’m pretty sure that the diatom helped.
It took me a couple of months to get rid of my infestation but I got there in the end – I’m sure you will get rid of them over the winter when they stop reproducing as quickly. Just keep at it!
About them sleeping outside the coop – I have managed to slove the problem now. All that I needed to do was to adjust the sensor on the door opener/closer…