Teaching the five amigos to perch at bedtime

For a while I have been thinking that I need to teach the five amigos to perch at bedtime. I had hoped they would start doing it on their own but instead they have moved from settling in the front corner of the chicken shed to settling in the back corner of the chicken shed.

Last night I decided to wait until after dark when they were properly settled and lift them from their corner to the perch.

The five amigos in a heap in the back corner

The amigos on the perch

I closed the door quickly and waited outside for a few moments then peeked in. Salmon who is closest in the photo had dropped down from the perch. I picked her up and placed her back on the perch.

I waited again and checked again and three times Salmon dropped down. I didn’t want her to sleep alone or underneath the others in the line of poop so I replaced her again and went indoors. I decided to wait five minutes and then check again.

When I returned both Salmon and Vanilla were snuggled up together in the far corner. The remaining three were still on the perch. I decided to leave them like that. Salmon and Vanilla could keep each other warm and be company for each other and were now out of the line of poop.

I didn’t take any more photos as I didn’t want to disturb them any more. It is funny that it is the two outside girls that didn’t stay on the perch and I wonder if they felt less secure.

I am taking this as a partial success as three out of five girls stayed on the perch. It will be interesting to see what they do tonight.

I will keep this up now that I have started as I would like to get them all perched before winter. I don’t want them to be sat in poop during the longer nights and would like them all together so that they can keep each other warm.