6-8 week old chickes not roosting

[Flockincrazy]

mine are the same age I had to make a lower roost for them

 

[Johnms2021]

Ok, to everyone that was kind enough to give some input. It’s been 3 days with having a lower roost about 4-6 inches off the ground with no luck. All still huddled in the corner by the chicken coop opening and climbing all over each other. I installed a smart led light in the coop today. Have the red light on. Just went out and checked them through the window and the same issue. All huddled in the corner and climbing on each other. It’s almost like they are all trying to be the closest to the door/wall next to the door. Can anyone think of anything else that I might need to change or look into? I’ll send a picture here shortly so you can all see exactly what I’m referring to. Thanks again

 

[BigBlueHen53]

The only thing I can think of is that your roosting bars are not flat, which is to say, they are not horizontal, but slanted. One of our roosting bars was just barely slanted and our chickens would not use it until we leveled it. I mean, level, as in, you could set a glass of water on it level, lol! Chickens do not hold on with their feet when they sleep. They kind of sleep with their shoes on, I guess, not like song birds that grip.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

They keep just jumping off the roost and joining the rest of the flock in the corner on the ground. During they day they are completely fine and have normal
Behavior. Not overly anxious or anything. Any suggestions on a light to put in the there? Would a blue light work to simulate moon light?

Blue would be better than red. Zoos use red lights to display nocturnal animals because the animals can't see red light, it looks almost completely dark to them. In other words, a red light isn't going to help your birds see to find their way up to the roosts, it's still going to look pitch dark to them.

 

[RobertaD1]

Well, you've got me stumped! My will roost on anything that gets them "up". Its crazy! Check the roosts for level, and keep putting them up. Good luck!

 

[Jrpatt]

I have eight 9 week old chicks and they are behaving exactly the same, they go in on their own at dusk but huddle and squirm in the corner by the pop door. I'm trying to wait them out, hoping they figure roosting out on their own. I dont like the idea of trying to pick them up at night and put them on the roost bars. The bars are 2x3's on flat 9", 18" & 28" off the floor, ladder style. If they don't figure it out, I'll try the training approach.

 

[Flockincrazy]

The only thing I can think of is that your roosting bars are not flat, which is to say, they are not horizontal, but slanted. One of our roosting bars was just barely slanted and our chickens would not use it until we leveled it. I mean, level, as in, you could set a glass of water on it level, lol! Chickens do not hold on with their feet when they sleep. They kind of sleep with their shoes on, I guess, not like song birds that grip.

Man you have picky chickens my roosts are tree branches from a tree we cut down mine love them

 

[Bear1978]

Give it time. As long as they’re not harming one another by huddling up in the corner and smothering one another it’s ok. They’ll figure it out. Mine are about that age and it took them a few nights to figure it out and even now they will
sometimes sleep in the pine shavings I have on the coop floor. It’s really not that big of a deal if the coop floor is safe and dry. Other than adding to the daily droppings you have to clean up. But I think sometimes we have a tendency to get our hopes up when we make a cool roost that we think is perfect and they don’t use it. After all. They’re animals and are prey animals so until
they get completely comfortable with their surroundings they will sleep where they feel the safest. Now mine try to roost on any ledge that’s off e ground. Window ledge, door frame, my head. I had one of mine hop up on my shoulder this morning and due to not wanting to have a chick turd delivered on my shoulder, I had to wiggle and bounce around to get her to fly off! She was in that one spot in the middle of my back up on my shoulders I couldn’t reach! Anyhoo, don’t sweat it too much. As long as they’re healthy and safe that’s what matters most!

 

[Jrpatt]

For me, that's the advice I was hoping for! Thank you so much!

 

[Sahraschweiss]

My girls would rather have 2x4s. While mine had no problems getting up to the roost bars, getting down was scary. I made ramps. Their coop is 8x8x8. Once they had ramps and poop boards they had no problems. The top roost is 18 inches from ceiling. The second one is 18 inches under the first and 12 inches away. One side They can ramp up to the lower board, the other they can jump on the staggered nesting box to another ramp to the lower roost. From the lower roost they either jump or use the ramp.

Try the 2x4s first. Then roost training by sitting them on it. If still a problem add ramps.