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torch trick

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If you can't get your girls into the eglu at night you can shine a torch in through the eggport as they tend to follow where the light is and they will then go into the eglu. If you want to train them to go back into the run a jar with their favourite treats in that you can rattle usually does the trick - if you use the same jar/tin they will learn to recogmise it and come running.

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Hi, the torch trick is where you shine torch to get the chooks attention and then point the beam in through the eglu door.

 

apparently the chickens follow the beam into the eglu and then decide that they may as well go to bed as they are in there anyway.

 

and snuggle up and go to sleep :D .

 

the only problem is that this doesnt work with cubes - or rather I have never managed to get it to work - maybe our chickens are just naughty little girls and want to stay up late :lol::lol:

 

hope this helps

 

cathy

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Torch trick worked with our girls on their first day with us today. We had to leave the torch in the Eglu and disappear and leave them to it for 5 minutes before they would all go in. Came back and found them all cosy so closed the door, opened the egg port, retrieved the torch and left them cuddling together in the cold and dark!

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We used the torch trick the first night we got our girls, the broom trick wasn't working and the nieghbours came out to see what all the fuss was about - squawking chickens, Me and OH disagreeing on the method, children laughing at us and the dogs getting rather excited too!

 

Torch trick worked a treat and only ever had to do it the first night, from then on they knew exactly what to do :D

 

I take delivery of my cube on 5th March and if the torch trick doesn't work Cathy, what did you do?

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I can normally get the girls into the run with a bowl of weetabix and raisins :lol:

 

Kev thinks its hillarious, they see me coming and are in and ready before ive put it on the floor :lol:

 

thy usually go to bed on their own, but one sits in the cube door and waits until we come out to shut them in, and then she makes a run for it and they all get up :roll:

 

wait till the patio light goes off, give them 10 minutes and try again.

 

sometimes, this works on the first attempt, other times we leave them open all night (the cube - not the run) as they just wont go to bed :roll:

 

just as I said before - I have 6 naughty girls :lol:

 

cathy

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I used the torch trick when the girls were new, but in the dusk Cava could see me bending down with the torch in the egg port but she couldn't see the mesh of the run and decided she would try and fly up and roost on me. :lol: So after she banged her head on the run a couple of times, I had to duck down and hide behind the eglu and reach round with the torch in the egg port but at the same time stopping the others hopping out of the egg port. :? After a couple of nights of this I got a little torch and put it in the poop tray and left them to it. It didn't take them too long to learn what to do and I didn't need to use it again until I built them a walk in run with the eglu up on a worktop height shelf and for the first couple of nights they wanted to roost underneath the shelf!

Only time I have trouble with a torch now is if I use one to light my way up the garden to tuck them up after they have gone to bed and, unless I am very careful to hold it pointing down, they see the light and all get up again! and by the time I get into the run they are all trooping down the ladder to say hello :lol::lol:

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I've been caught out going out there with the torch to lock them up for the night and they come out of the eglu into the run because they're so nosey and they don't want to miss anything.

 

If mine are still free ranging when it gets dark they hang around outside the back kitchen door or on top of the dog's kennel which is outside the kitchen window, so they definitely go towards light. I can certainly see the logic in leaving a torch in the eglu so they know where to go.

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