Move them at roosting time, in the dark and calm
Chickens are easiest to move when their own instincts do the handling for you. After dark a hen is torpid on her perch and can be lifted off calmly with both hands over her wings, where the same bird at midday is a sprinting, flapping chase that stresses the whole flock and risks a torn wing or an escape over the fence. Work through the perch bird by bird into ventilated crates lined with bedding, keeping crates level, shaded and not overcrowded, and avoid moving them in the heat of the day if the journey is long — a crate in a hot car is one of the few genuinely dangerous parts of an otherwise simple move.
Have the new coop completely ready first
The birds should arrive to a finished home, not a building site. Before moving day, deep-clean the new coop, put the perches up at a height the hens can reach confidently, bed the nest boxes, fill the drinker, and put their usual feed in the feeder — a diet change on top of a move is an unnecessary second stress, so take a sack of their current feed with you. Walk the run fence line slowly, looking at ground level for gaps, loose mesh and latches that do not quite close, because the first night in a strange place is exactly when a predator patrols and a hen tests every corner.
Keep them home-based for the first days
Shut the flock in the coop and run for the first day or two, however ungrateful they seem about it. Chickens learn home by sleeping in it: a hen who has roosted two nights in the new coop will march back to it at dusk, while one let straight out to free-range on arrival may pick the old site, a hedge or a neighbour's shed instead. Let them out first under a watchful eye, late in the afternoon, so the first outing is short and ends with the whole flock filing back to the roost they now recognise.
Expect a laying dip and a reshuffled pecking order
A move rearranges a flock's world, and eggs are the first thing to pause — most hens take a break from laying while they settle, and the feed tastes the same but the view does not. The pecking order often gets renegotiated in a new space too, so give the flock room to sort itself out: a second feeder and drinker at the far end of the run lets a low-ranking hen eat in peace while things settle. Handle each bird once during the move week and check her over — weight, clean vent, bright eye, no passengers in the feathers — because stress is when problems like mites and worms show themselves, and catching them early in a new set-up is far easier than later.
Share the move-day jobs out
A flock move is several small jobs in two places at once: catching and crating at the old coop, a final coop and run check at the new one, the first feed and water, and the dusk count-in for the first few evenings. Write the jobs down and divide them between whoever is helping rather than carrying the whole list in your head while you are also driving crates across town. Listing those jobs in KinsLe's Care Teams means each one has a named owner and gets marked done with a timestamp, so nobody assumes the water was filled by someone else.