Actual Feet Posture on Various Size Roosts (And Chicken's Preference)

[Outta Here]

We are working on building our first coop and this is the article we used to learn the best roost design, so thank you for doing your hard work!! Our 12 chickens appreciate you helping these newbies out, haha!

You're quite welcome--Best wishes on your new coop!

 

[Outta Here]

I was writing a full article on this topic when I kept finding the oft repeated "chicken feet lock at night" myth. I don't know how this started, but it is all over the Internet and has lead to the advice to have narrow roosts. Perhaps because chickens have three toes pointing forward and one backward, someone somewhere assumed they were Passerines, small songbirds that do indeed unconsciously lock their feet while sleeping. Passerines also are able to roost and sleep on vertical surfaces, as in the picture below.

I think the fact that got ignored is that our chickens are not of the order Passerformes, the only birds that can lock their feet while sleeping. Chickens are of the order Galliformes, along with turkey, quail, partridge, peacock, and pheasant.
Our round, clumsy domestic chickens are not tiny songbirds. They wobble precariously and must grip with sustained muscle engagement to balance, walk, or perch on very narrow edges. Even slender flighty chickens who roost high in trees usually choose a branch 1.5” in diameter or larger so they can sleep in the relaxed, unclenched, nearly flat-footed roosting posture that is natural to their species.
Perhaps someone thought that because chickens can grasp a pole that they are "locked" onto that pole while sleeping. But sleeping chickens are easily lifted from a perch. Truly locking feet, like those of a sloth, enables him to hold on while a jaguar tries to rip him from the tree!
Perhaps the unintentional misinformation started when someone thought chickens must have some locking mechanism to keep from falling off the roost. However, feet under a chicken sitting on a 1.5"-4" wide roost are relaxed and almost flat with all four toes loosely tucked, the back toe facing forward, front toes slightly resting over the front edge. This posture is in no way gripping, clenching, grasping, or locking. And billions of chickens sleeping like this balance on their roosts! (Lucky picture snapped a split second before Nimpie sat down all the way to roost.)

Video frame caught the split second a chicken started to rise from sitting, showing the foot posture while roosting.

Even knowing the "locking chicken feet" is not a talent of their species, I decided to do another test about comfort.
I removed their 2x4 (wide side up) roost and replaced it with a 1” diameter pole. My flock of thirteen were very unhappy, even though they play on narrow branches during the day. All of them tried out the pole, wobbling with difficulty balancing as they walked along it, clutching desperately. Some even tried to get comfortable roosting, their feet tightly clenched on the pole. But all of them shortly abandoned the uncomfortable perch and refused to go to roost, settling disgruntled on the floor. Before I took mercy and replaced their 2x4 roost, I snapped a picture of the only one who spent more than a minute trying to roost on the narrow pole before giving up in disgust.

Even on a pole as narrow as 1” diameter, chickens cannot grasp with a Passerine’s unconscious locked grip. This Leghorn was forced to clutch tightly to maintain balance, her toes in a true grip, but even then she can’t encircle the pole for more stability. Perhaps if it were a pencil she could…very uncomfortably. And there is no auto-pilot locking mechanism that would allow her to maintain that grip unconsciously--she would have to consciously maintain the muscular grip overnight.
Also, not even her entire feet are fully supported. In fact, her body’s length is only receiving a 1 inch strip support, causing concentrated pressure on feet and keel. Foot problems and keel bone fractures can occur from this pressure; they are painful and cause depression and decreased productivity in chickens.
She was happy when I replaced the 2x4 wide side up roost! So were they all, especially Nimpie, who previously had modeled her relaxed, specie-appropriate roosting feet posture earlier in this article!

It’s true some chickens spend their lives sleeping on 1” wide roosts if that’s all they are provided with (possibly because of the "locking chicken feet" myth). But sustaining tightly clenched feet all night is not as comfortable or healthful as the supportive and relaxed, nearly flat-footed natural roosting posture of the Gallus Gallus Domesticus species.

 

[Outta Here]

Science! Great experiment. I would be cautious of any "official" recommendations listing a very specific size. Like what you said you read about 2.5" being the "ideal" width. Ideal for what? Chickens vary tremendously in size between breeds, and between ages of the same breed. What might be ideal for one bird might be too narrow for another. So there's a lot of leeway there. Seems like the bigger the better, as long as their butts can still hang over the edge, so they don't sit in their poop at night (probably why they don't like the shelf). If you can go bigger, why go smaller, would be a good general guideline. I usually take a walk through the woods when I'm looking for a good, thick, long roost. Lots of fallen limbs to choose from. A couple of years ago I found a great 6' branch that's about 4" in diameter, and have been using that. The chickens are happy.

No, I don't think 2.5" is ideal at all. I said, "Wish I would have done my test earlier--I ripped that 8 foot 2x4 on a table saw and used it for weeks just because I read 2.5" was perfect. Now it's firewood as I switch to wider and more comfortable." I listened to online advice and found out it was not ideal, not really enough support for legs and keel.Your 4" branch would be fantastic!
I did an experiment offerings chickens the choice of a 2x4 with wide edge up (3.5") and a 2x6 with wide edge up (5.5"). The chickens were still influenced by location and pecking order rather than width. But they did adjust their posture for each roost width.
The chickens on the 2x4 roost hung their toes slightly over the front edge in their natural unclenched, relaxed roosting posture, but the chickens on the 2x6 roost scooted back, relinquishing hanging their toes over the front edge in order to allow their hocks and tails to hang down over the back edge! This shows that having their hocks and backsides hang over the edge of the roost is even more important to them than having their toes over the front edge! So, except for perhaps giant breeds of chickens, a 2x6 roost is too wide.
So when deciding on a roost width, choose the width according to the size of your chickens, making sure of two things:
1. The roost should be wide enough to support feet, legs, and keel. This allows relaxing into a natural foot posture instead of clutching a narrow roost all night.
2. But the roost should be narrow enough to allow your chickens to hang their toes over the front edge and their hocks and bums over the back edge.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Thanks, this has been enlightening, to put it mildly!