Are Roosting Bars Optional? Polyface Farm / Salatin System

[Sir-Mulch-A-Lot]

Hi guys,

I've just watched this video from Polyface Farm (Salatin) where they combine chickens with rabbits and I've noticed there are no roosting bars inside the coop:

I'm planning on converting my chicken coop with a similar rabbit setup but there might be no space left for roosting bars.

Whats your opinion? Will this work for 220 Rhode Island Reds?

Thanks for your advice

 

[sylviethecochin]

From experience with a similar setup, mine would perch on the rabbit cages, slowly wearing the wire down (the sides of the cages slowly began to sag and fall apart) and pooping on them. And my parents' rabbit cages cages did not lose a big chicken poop as well as they lost a little rabbit pellet.

 

[ChickenLady2014]

Hi guys,

I've just watched this video from Polyface Farm (Salatin) where they combine chickens with rabbits and I've noticed there are no roosting bars inside the coop:

I'm planning on converting my chicken coop with a similar rabbit setup but there might be no space left for roosting bars.

Whats your opinion? Will this work for 220 Rhode Island Reds?

Thanks for your advice

What a great video, thanks for sharing it. I would suspect that the chickens roost on the bunny cages if I had to guess. Are you intending to have Bunnies in cages in addition to the RIR chickens?

 

[Sir-Mulch-A-Lot]

The plan is to have a laying box on top of the rabbit cages so there wont be any poop inside the rabbit cages and the roof of the layer boxes would be sloping so the chickens cant poop on top of the layer boxes.

But the big questions remains if chickens really need a roosting bar?

 

[sylviethecochin]

The plan is to have a laying box on top of the rabbit cages so there wont be any poop inside the rabbit cages and the roof of the layer boxes would be sloping so the chickens cant poop on top of the layer boxes.

But the big questions remains if chickens really need a roosting bar?

They don't, but chickens will try to get as high up to sleep as they can, so if you go with that setup, they'll probably be sleeping in the nesting boxes, and you will have to deal with a lot of poop, often on your eggs.

 

[Sir-Mulch-A-Lot]

They don't, but chickens will try to get as sleep as they can

Do you mean as high as?

so if you go with that setup, they'll probably be sleeping in the nesting boxes, and you will have to deal with a lot of poop, often on your eggs.

Good point. Will think about that. I might just use the top of the nesting boxes and attach roosting bars in a way that the poop will end up on the floor.

 

[Sir-Mulch-A-Lot]

Would something like this work? Maybe even extend the roost bar 1 foot (30cm) away from the nesting boxes?

 

[sylviethecochin]

Do you mean as high as?

EDT'd for clarity.

Would something like this work? Maybe even extend the roost bar 1 foot (30cm) away from the nesting boxes?

I think that might work, if you put the roosts out of the top of the nesting boxes instead of out of the bottom. I suspect that if you put them out the bottom, it would be 50/50, though I have never dealt with that setup myself.

 

[Sir-Mulch-A-Lot]

if you put the roosts out of the top of the nesting boxes instead of out of the bottom.

Good thinking, mate! Thanks. I'll start building next week. We probably going to use a mix of plywood, bamboo and coco lumber.

 

[lazy gardener]

I would stack nest boxes on top of rabbit cages, and put a sloped top on nest boxes. I would do what ever it takes to provide roosting for the chickens. I was not impressed with this PFF housing b/c there were no perches for the chickens. While they are obviously keeping these birds w/o perches, IMO, this is not best practice. Also, I did not see that the birds had access to outdoors. The stocking density in this video comes very close to factory farming density. IMO, while chickens CAN be raised without any outdoor run, that is not best practice. Not at all impressed with this video. However, if roosts and outdoor run/free range was provided, I would give an endorsement.

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