5 birds roosting, An adventure in roosting.

As I've already mentioned, we got 10 birds and split them with a friend.  They came over and we randomly chose 5 birds of the 10 and loaded them up and sent them on their way.

We were happy owners of 5 chickens!

The first night, I had to put the hens in the coop.  I'm guessing where they came from, they didn't have a coop.  Anyway, I got them inside and close the coop door.  They were now safe and sound, and I went back into the house to give them a bit to get settled in before I went back out and checked on them.

I went back out about 10 or 15 minutes later, and peeked in on them, and no one was on the roosts I made them!  So, I opened the door and placed them all on the roosts, and they had a good night.

The next night, they all went into the house without a problem, and 3 of the 5 were on the roost.  I picked up the 2 and placed them on the roost.

Well, the next day (2 days after our friends took 5 hens) they brought them back!  They had bought some chicks at the farm supply store a few weeks back, and the 5 were picking and pecking on them.  Understandably, that will never do.

Now, we're seeing here with a coop that from what I've learned can hold 10 birds, and it was holding 10 birds!  That's not how I wanted to do this.  I wanted a mix and a match.  Different looks, not 10 that when they grow their feathers back all look the same!

I had nothing to fear though.  My wife had it all under control and posted on Facebook to her friends to see if anyone was wanting 5 chickens.  Then we waited.

That night, I went out to check on the new hens.  5 birds were inside the coop on the roosts.  5 were outside in the chicken yard. *sigh*

I got them all picked up and put in the coop, and I went ahead and placed them on the roost.

The next night, they all went inside, but only 7 birds were on the roosts.  Again, I picked them up and placed them on the roost.  The next night, I found 8 birds on the roosts.  This was getting old.  They weren't learning as fast as the first batch.

Luckily, my wife's friend said she'd take another 5 chickens!  Just one more night.  And sure enough, 8 birds roosting.  And what I failed to mention was that the 2 that weren't, really, really wanted to cuddle up in the nesting boxes to sleep.  So I learned to put a board in front of the nesting boxes so they couldn't get in them at night.

The next day, after the pickup, we were back down to 5 birds!  I was so excited.  That was, until night.  Then we had 3 birds roosting and 2 not.

As I kept trying to teach, I finally go to 4 birds roosting.

After much research and asking on different groups online (like Backyard Chickens on G+) I found that it's not a big deal, so I wasn't going to worry about it too much

Last night, I forgot to put the board up to keep the chickens from getting in the laying boxes.  So I went out to check, and sure enough, she was in there.  I got her out and put her on a roost and placed the board up to keep her out.

Tonight, when I went out to close up the coop, I peeked in on them, and all 5 of our girls were on their roosts!