Another roosting bar question! Building our coop...

[Tioram]

We have black australorps. We are building our coop and it is 6x10 right now (and about 5 1/2' tall). Question is, I want to use roosting bars all at the same level and also think I will be putting in a droppings board underneath. The nesting boxes are 18" off the ground. I plan on putting the roosting bars at least 24". Should I go higher? Can my larger ladies get up that high or higher? I don't know how they are with flight because this is our first time raising chickens and right now they are in a prefab coop/run that doesn't allow for them to stretch their wings even though I am not at the capacity for the birds it claims it can hold.

Regarding the spacing of the roost bars, is it ok to go 12" between the boards and is that spacing "on center" or from end of one board to the end of another? I am going to be using 2x4 boards on their side. We live in South Central PA and our winters can get downright fridgid so I don't want anything to happen to their poor feet.

Thanks! This site has been an amazing help in the building process. I'm old enough to learn from others mistakes and successes

 

[JackE]

The roost bars in my coop are almost 3' high, and none of the birds have any problem reaching them. And I have some tubbs in there. A few years ago, I had one big B.O., and she would hop onto the nestbox entrance shelf, then hop up to the roost boards. She would do that every night. All the others would just hop straight up. My boards are on 18" centers, 12" would probably work, but more room is better. It makes it harder for a bully bird to reach over and peck at another bird on a different roost. How many roosts are you going to have in there, for how many birds? If you are going with a droppings board, you could put the nestboxes under that, open up more floor space.

 

[Tioram]

Thanks for the quick reply! I currently have 4 and plan to get a few more. We are designing it to hold 15 but don't plan on going near max capacity. We have the nesting boxes built in to the wall opposite where the roost will be. I wonder if it might not make sense to put a second pop-door under the droppings board.

We are looking at possibly 3 bars, 18" OC and 4' long. That feels like overkill to me for 15 birds but again, I'm a newb!

I think I can do the 18" OC. I just thought it was a bit much and way too much space to do them end to end, but on center makes more sense. I obviously have the room do ladder them but I think it might be better to have them level from what I've read (since I have the room). I was thinking I'd have approximately 10" of roost per bird. That's a lot of roost bars!

Thanks again!

 

[Tioram]

*currently have 4 chickens.

I might go 2 1/2 feet or 3 feet up off of the floor and see if that works for them too.

 

[JackE]

Your coop is 6X10', why not go with 6' roosts? Go wall to wall with them. Are you going to set them in notches, so they are easily removable? That makes it more convenient at cleaning time.

 

[Tioram]

I don't know how I would be able to do that really. The way I have it laid out, I have a door on the front wall on the left side, which is the 6' wall. When you walk in, the 10' wall runs straight in front of you on the left. To the right, on the other 10' wall are my nesting boxes. Straight ahead on the other 6' wall is the pop door (possibly 2?) that go out to the 8x20' run.

I almost have to build the roosts from the pop door wall towards the main door, into the middle of the floor (if this makes any sense at all!) I was also looking at having them in notches of some sort so that they are removable for cleaning and the like.

 

[JackE]

I don't know how I would be able to do that really. The way I have it laid out, I have a door on the front wall on the left side, which is the 6' wall. When you walk in, the 10' wall runs straight in front of you on the left. To the right, on the other 10' wall are my nesting boxes. Straight ahead on the other 6' wall is the pop door (possibly 2?) that go out to the 8x20' run.

I almost have to build the roosts from the pop door wall towards the main door, into the middle of the floor (if this makes any sense at all!) I was also looking at having them in notches of some sort so that they are removable for cleaning and the like.

How many nestboxes do you have? You don't have a 10' wall, lined with nestboxes, do you. You don't need any more than 4. At the far wall, opposite the entrance door, you could have roosts going wall to wall, and still have the popdoor where you want it. And really, with the number of chickens you are talking about, scrap the poop board. I don't have one in my coop, and don't want one. It's not my idea of a good time, to scrape a crappy board everyday. And with one of those boards, you will be scrapping it everyday, or it can get out of hand.