Roost too close to vents?

[tymimo]

Hi Everyone,
I'm just putting the finishing touches on my first coop and had a question about the height of my roost. I built a free-standing roost with poop board to place in my coop. The roost bar is 24" up off the floor of the coop. When I placed the roost into the coop I noticed that it's only about 8 inches below the bottom of side ventilation. There is a similar opening on the other wall of the coop and I'm wondering if that is going to be too drafty for the chickens liking? I took a peek tonight and found my 4 chickens huddled next to each other on one end of the roost but wonder if they'll still want to sleep up there come winter time or on windy nights. I could turn the roost 90 degrees but then it would be hard for me to scoop the poop from one end of the poop board (In the picture below the roost is running next to a door I can lift up to access the poop board).


Would it help if I lowered the roost by about 2 inches? Right now the top of the roost is about 8 inches above the floor of the poop board.

Thanks.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I looked at the pictures of your coop, on your page.

You could close that vent up and put a new vent up at the top of the adjoining high wall. Next to what looks like a people sized door. Then, the roost will be in a sheltered area in bad winter weather, but you will still have lots of ventilation.

 

[chfite]

I would leave it as it is. My chickens sit on the roost and look out the vent that runs along the top edge of the wall. All year round. That is the roost that gets filled first.

Chris

 

[tymimo]

They appear to be using it based on all the poop I'm finding on the board in the morning. I may put some sort of baffle to direct the air up away from the chickens but first I need to finish the run. Thanks!

 

[renardsubtil]

If they're using it, then it's probably fine where it is.

Mine kept using the nesting box until I moved the roost to a place where they liked it...but I don't think they moved because of the draft, I think it was their up bringing in a cage (previous owner) that had no roost to begin with. I actually had to shut off the nesting box for a few days to get them used to using the roost

I have a slant in my coop just like yours and they started using my roost when I moved the roost to be parallel to the lower section of the roof slant