14 week old chickens/roos not on roost!!

[chickies49]

hello,
im confused because my five chooks/roos are not sleeping on there roost anymore! They started sleeping on the roost a couple weeks ago then only some of them,and now none! all just sleeping on the timber.Does anyone Know why this might be happening?i thought it might be because its all one height or there to big for it, it is pretty squishy with 5 on. I will post a pic of the roost.

thanks!

 

[rosemarythyme]

How long is the roost bar and how thick is it? It appears to be at an angle (correct me if that's wrong) which might gives them less usable space. Ideally you want approx 1 foot of bar per bird and they need enough room on both sides to have their heads/tails hanging over.

Also I'm wondering how well secured it is, is it free standing and not attached to the wall? I'm wondering if maybe they've gotten big enough that it's wobbly to them or starting to sag (if the branch/dowel isn't terribly thick).

Last thing to check is to make sure there's no mites or other tiny parasites hanging out on the roost. I don't have any experience with that but supposedly they won't want to stay on a bar that hosts parasites like that, since they're getting bitten.

 

[chickies49]

thanks for the fast reply!
yeah it goes on an angle and some part of the roost doesn't have the wood under it.i am going to add another bar because they don't have a foot each.I checked and its not wobbly and don't have parasites .so I think its the space.

thanks for the help!!