Trying to get the chicks perching at bedtime

I am surprised that this is proving so difficult because the chicks now love to perch during the day. They use the perch by the hatch and both perches in the wooden shelter. They are often hanging out together on one of the perches.

At bedtime they squeeze into the box behind the perch. They now look quite big in this space. Last night I went out late to them when they were asleep. I picked each of them up and put them on the perch. I actually managed to get a photo of all three on the perch for the first time. As soon as I had taken the photo they all jumped down and resumed their usual position. Sigh!

The chicks usually sleep in this position

This is how I would like them to sleep

I am finding that the chicks don’t like changing their habits. From when we first got them they were dust bathing in the pine shavings. I thought that once they had their own part of the run that they would start to dust bath in the dust! No, they don’t. They return to the little coop and dust bath in the shavings.

You are supposed to start them on growers pellets at around three months old. I mixed growers pellets with chick crumb to get them used to the pellets. After a week of this I decided to take the crumb away and just give pellets. They would flick the pellets out of the dish and push them around but were not eating them. I eventually gave up and added chick crumb back to the dish and all three heads went in the dish as if they were starving.

They like to sleep in a heap and despite perching during the day they do not want to perch at night.

They seem to be so entrenched in their habits that they are reluctant to change. I will just have to be patient and hope they get the hang of all these things eventually. They are funny little characters!