My ladies won't have to worry about any snow.

The debate continues. Why did the chicken cross the road?

Here are the top 5 solutions for when your chickens are refusing to roost in their coop.

Here are the top 5 solutions for when your chickens are refusing to roost in their coop.

1. They haven’t learned where “home” is, yet.

Of course, we as humans know we have prepared a lovely coop for our pet chickens. We have food, water, nests, roosts, and perhaps even chicken toys. But when you move your young chickens from the brooder to the coop, they won’t automatically understand that they have a new home. To your young chickens, 5 or 6 weeks old when you move them, it’s not that they’re refusing to roost in their home. It’s that they think of the brooder as their home.

Solution? Show your chickens where their new home is. Keep them enclosed in their coop or 3 or 4 days before letting them out into the run or yard. Be sure, of course, that you do this in reasonable weather–you don’t want to keep them shut up inside a coop  during the heat of summer if the inside of the coop is going to get as hot as a car interior!  But once they get used to sleeping inside the coop, it will become home, and you won’t have errant hens looking to return to a brooder that has been sanitized and packed away.

2. Your coop needs cleaned.

Another reason your chickens may be refusing to roost in the coop at night is if you’re not keeping the coop clean enough. Despite the reputation of chickens as “dirty” birds, they are not stupid and will not willingly stay in an unhealthy environment. Don’t get me wrong; they don’t understand whether their nests or roosts are sanitized, of course. But when droppings build up without being cleaned out, they can produce ammonia. And yuck. If you smell it, your chickens—much lower to the ground and closer to the source—will have been suffering a long time. They’ll be refusing to roost in the coop when they can’t breathe in there!

Solution? Duh! Clean out the coop. And make a garden, while you’re at it. Chicken manure makes great compost.

3. Your hen is broody.

Whether we want them to or not, occasionally a hen will want to hatch her eggs. Even if you don’t have any roosters (and thus the eggs aren’t fertile and can never successfully be incubated into chicks), some hens will go broody. It’s a hormonal condition. Some breeds are more prone to this than others. Silkies and Orpingtons, particularly, are known for frequent broodiness. Normally, a hen will go broody in a nest in the coop, but occasionally you’ll have a hen who wants to hide beneath your porch or some other place that is not necessarily secure from predators.

Solution? Well, sorry. This one is rough. She is instinctually drawn to go back to the area she’s designated as her safe nest. You’ll just have to carry her back to the coop. Or failing that, you might decide to keep all your chickens in the coop for a few days until such time as your hen gets used to nesting inside, or your hen’s broodiness is broken.

4. There is tension in the flock.

If there have been pecking order disputes in your flock, sometimes the girl or girls lowest in thepecking order will prefer to stay outside the coop. Generally speaking, there will be little tension in an established flock that has enough room in the coop, and plenty of space at feeders and waterers. If you keep roosters, you also want to make sure you have enough hens per rooster so the hens don’t get overbred and the roosters don’t tussle. Otherwise, you may find you have a hen or two who wants to hide in the trees.

Solution? Make sure you give your flock—or gawking—of chickens plenty of room. Expand your coop, or run, or reduce the size of your flock. In some cases, they may have plenty of everything, but you keep aggressive breeds, or one of your birds is just, well, a jerk. If there is one troublemaker, you may consider rehoming him or her, or housing that bird separately.

5. There are predators or pests bothering them in the coop

If most or all of your flock suddenly refuses to retire to the coop, it’s possible they’ve been visited by a predator at night while they’re trying to sleep. Another possibility is that the coop is infested with mites or some other pest. Some types come out at night to feed on your birds while they’re trying to rest. It would be like trying to sleep in a lice-ridden bed. You wouldn’t want to do that either! You might choose to pitch a tent in the yard, instead.

Solution? Make sure your coop is secure from predators, and treat for any pest problem.

One final note: after you’ve dealt with whatever issue is causing your birds to dislike roosting in the coop, you may need to ALSO follow up with solution #1, too: keep them enclosed for a few days. Chickens are creatures of habit, and they may have to relearn where home is, so they’ll know where to return to roost.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

So why did the chicken cross the road?

SARAH PALIN: The chicken crossed the road because, gosh-darn it, he's a maverick!

BARACK OBAMA: Let me be perfectly clear, if the chickens like their eggs they can keep their eggs. No chicken will be required to cross the road to surrender her eggs. Period.

JOHN McCAIN: My friends, the chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON: What difference at this point does it make why the chicken crossed the road?

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either with us or against us. There is no middle ground here.

DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken.

AL GORE: I invented the chicken.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white?

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he is acting by not taking on his current problems before adding any new problems.

OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross the road so badly. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a NEW CAR so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

ANDERSON COOPER: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he's guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way the chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heartwarming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken2014, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents and balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken2014. This new platform is much more stable and will never reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

Father's Day Egg

Our first speckled egg. 

Happy Mother's Day

Samaritan's Purse

Thanks to all those that helped reach out to families in need by donating for  eggs from 

Camp Clucks-A Lot.

We will be doing this again soon, please plan to join the ministry of giving chicks.