Are my roosts too high?

[Palmettoguy]

My bars are 28" off the ground...more like 24" because of the 4" straw bed. There is 24"+ of space above the bars.

The girls have been in their new home for 2 nights now yet they refuse to use the roost bars. Any ideas?

 

[Palmettoguy]

I should add they are 7wks old and they like to sleep in a pile together on the floor.
Even when I had roost bars in the breeder (6" off the ground), they wanted to sleep on the floor.

 

[KaseySnow]

I don't think you should worry, anything under 3' is likely not too high for most chickens to jump down from without injury.


They just haven't learned to use them at night yet. You can try placing them up there at dusk so that they know to sleep there. They are just young.

 

[3KillerBs]

Young birds almost always sleep on the ground unless raised by a broody who teaches them to roost.

They'll figure it out in due time.

 

[aart]

Roost height is OK, but I'd move the waterer outside or at least out of the way.

 

[Palmettoguy]

Thanks everyone. I went out there at dusk and put one on the roost. Within a minute, the 2 darker ones flew up to it and stayed there while the other one jumped down.
Just checked on them and there are 4 up there now and the others are just piled atop the roo.