oh, which is it round limb or 2 by 4 for roost?!!!!!!

Here are mine ignoring the narrow ends of the branch. It does need to be strong enough to hold their weight without sagging much.

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That's another reason I like them....they are varied in shape and size and they are FREE. Free is good.

Here's mine...they ain't pretty, but they serve the purpose, much like my coop.

I have two roost in my coop. One is about four feet off the ground, the other about three feet. Both are 2X4s wide end lying flat. I have poop boards under each roost. the height I have it at makes it easy to clean the poop off the boards. They are both high enough to clean without bending over.

I went with the flat 2X4 as I live in a cold climate and I believe this allows them to tuck their feet under them when they sleep to keep them warm. This is my first winter with chickens and so far have not heated my coop. We have had a unseasonably warm winter so far with the coldest only getting down in the single digits less than a hand full on nights.

Little off topic, out of the seven girls I am still getting six to seven eggs a day. I do provide additional light to extend their day. (about 14 hours as recommended here on BYC.)

A co-worker who also got chickens this year said his egg production is way down. He is heating his coop and has light on 24/7. I advised him in the fall not to heat his coop and provide 14 hours of light on a timer. He did not listen and now egg production is way down. At this stage of the game I would not recommend to him to turn off the heat as I am sure they now would have problems adjusting to the cooler temps.

I may turn on the heat lamps when it get down to a minus 10 for an extended period of time. I will have to monitor the girls to see how they are doing. My main problem is getting the eggs before they freeze. We loose a few but still have more than enough for the wife and I.

Heat isn't necessary at -10. I've had them down to -35F with no heat or insulation in the coop

blucoondawg said:

Heat isn't necessary at -10. I've had them down to -35F with no heat or insulation in the coop

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We also have a week or two were it get down to a minus 35F. I put the heat lamps in the coop as every one I talked to around here said you need to heat your coop. Even another guy at work that is a part time farmer (100 head of cattle or so) he also has about twenty chickens and he said he heats his coop.

You are not the only member that lives in a climate similar to mine that said heat is not needed. Right now I will most likely not heat the coop at all and see what happens.I do find it humorous as the one guy at work that is complaining about egg production was giving me a little "Heat" about not heating my coop earlier this fall. Egg production is good, just need to get them before they freeze once it gets a little cooler.

I did insulate my coop so that should help some.

I considered insulating at one point but didn't because the ventilation would have pretty much rendered it pointless. I just have a led bulb for light. Freezing eggs does get annoying, the way this year is going I'll likely not have to deal with that