Bananas For 6 Week Old Chicks?

[Awestruck]

I just put my 6 week old chicks outside in their new big girl house (coop/run). I am having a hard time getting them to go in the coop. I'm wondering if I put a banana in there, if that might be an incentive for them to go in. Would it be ok to give them banana at this age?

 

[BastyPutt]

I chuckled at this one! A banana? Is there something about them that I don't know!? Like a chicken drug!?

Scraps are definitely a treat, and a banana is excellent for them in moderation. Loaded with vitamins and naturally occurring sugars. However, They may go in there to get the banana but won't want to stay because of it. We have raised countless birds here, and not one could be incentivized to do anything that it didn't want to do - but will still expect you to give them whatever you had planned to give

A chicken will ultimately head to the coop each night, to roost for a multitude of reasons, but the primary two are because they are extremely habitual, and because it makes them feel safe. As little ones, they don't know that your coop will serve these purposes - they know the need it, just not sure where to get it.

99% of the time, you will need to show them what to do - especially if they haven't been roosting at all until this point. You'll need to manually put them into the coop, preferably onto a roost for usually 3 days to a week. Once they start going in there on their own, they will continue for the rest of their life. Occasionally, if you free range, you will get the lone wolf who likes to roost in a tree or something along those lines. In that case, you'll want to clip their wings and ultimately it will recondition them to go back in.

We always find the leader of the group, and put them in first. We have found this speeds the process up in some cases.

Interestingly enough, we have 50 or so chickens, and with the exception of some newer ones, each will roost on the same spot every night.