Best materials for roosts?

[Bobby Basham]

Too true about the a variety of things working. My younger birds use the roost I shared, but my six oldest birds sleep on a railroad tie. They also like to roost on top of the door in the evening until I go out there and remove them to close it. My shyest birds like it there, but they don’t seem to get the message that choosing that roost means I will have to handle them to take them down at night!

When you mentioned "the roost I shared," I thought you were out there roosting with them, too...LOL!

I'm glad of all the ideas presented here because I'm constantly modifying my coop design before committing to wood, hammer and nail.

 

[Harmony Fowl]

When you mentioned "the roost I shared," I thought you were out there roosting with them, too...LOL!

I'm glad of all the ideas presented here because I'm constantly modifying my coop design before committing to wood, hammer and nail.

Only when the power goes out, I swear!

 

[farm_girl726]

We actually used 2x8 flat side up and my birds LOVE it. I have 28 chickens. They can huddle together or they can lay out. My one Roo really loves them, he lays out sideways hah! I also have 2 Roos that insist on sitting on the top ledges of the nesting boxes and watch over the girls. Those are only 1" wide and they always seem to stay up there. No 2 chickens are a like.

 

[scrambledsegg]

If you decide to replace your roosts, a good option for wood underneath the roosts to catch droppings is a smooth, treated wood like the kind you can get from ikea. I recommend this type of wood because cleaning is very easy!

 

[tuesdaylove]

One of my groups has some wooden boards for roosts. I'm not positive what size, but I'd guess 2x4s. I've also had dried bamboo canes for roosts, and they like those. They are round, but they're very smooth and easy on the birds' feet.

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Okay so next question.. The space im adding is it to big or small? I drew this up last night. I was going to just make a new coop but I build this one on my own so a lot of hard work went into. Here are some measurements and how my coop is now.

Before add on my coop is about 20ft long 4-5ft wide and 5ft 6ft tall but has slanted roof i can stand up in it at the door. And one side is only 4ft tall an wide with a slanted roof the opposite direction.

What I want to do is to the far left looking from the back keep my 4 ft × 4ft side just turn it into nest boxing spots since they already lay on that side and its the darkest spot in the coop. But looking from the back side after the 4ft spot I'm keeping its about 15-16 ft (sorry my measurements may be off but only a ft I believe since every thing I used was recycled so it was slightly off but either 4ft or 5ft the plywood I used and platfroms.) long of space I want to bring it out four or five feet with a slanted roof im I going to have to much or to little space? And I still have enough materials left over from when I made this just need more beams for the walls.

Love the window!

 

[Chelseyb123]

Love the window!

yeah it has a good piece that pops in. Buy they kept knocking it down. I got a ton of those windows for few over the summer. My girls like to sit in front of it.

 

[bruceha2000]

Can those fluffy butts fly up that high?

The roosts in Jack's coop aren't all that high. All my birds roost at 4'. This is the SE corner of the coop. At the front is a 2x4, in the back and the low one at 2' are 3" round fence rails. As others have said, much less poop on the round one. Never in 5+ years has a single chicken roosted on the 2' high rail but they use it to stage the 4' roosts. That said, every single one of my birds can hit the 4' roost from the ground if they want to.

For quite a while I didn't have a ramp, never had a case of bumble-foot. The floor is dirt covered with 1/2" hardware cloth, rubber horse mats (came with the barn) and probably 3-6" of pine shavings. Having the roosts at 4' makes it easy to rake the shavings every morning. I usually replace the shavings once a year.

This is the north side of the coop. You can see the ramp I ran from the 2' high rail to the broody buster box shelf ... which turned into a very popular roost when the buster was not on it. The ramp does seem to get a fair bit of use for going up to the north side of the roosts and down from all the roosts. It does have to be easier on the birds coming down. Of course it is a fantastic poop catcher which is why I didn't have one for so long.


And I added another 2x4 roost on the south side with another ramp so the girls don't have to go past those that prefer roosting in the SE corner and are pissy about anyone coming near since they MIGHT want to try to take their place. Not sure how often they use that ramp though. I have 17 hens now. The coop is 12' wide, I've seen that Exchequer Leghorn in the picture above fly from that position to the new roost in the picture below, and the other way as well. It is probably about 9' between them.


Regarding what they CAN roost on, I put a 1/2" piece of plywood about halfway along the back roosts so one of the 2015 girls that was chasing some of the 2017's off the roost would have to work at it and have to decide which side of the divider she wanted to be on. Several of the 2017's started roosting ON the skinny board. I can't imagine that would be real comfortable but they did it anyway. I pulled the divider when it started getting cold, didn't really want any frozen toes.

On another note...how are external nest boxes attached to the coop? I've been going through different forums and can't see how they're actually attached.

Depends on how you build it

I made mine with perch supports that slide through holes I made in the plywood wall. That holds it up vertically. The 2x4 top rail is attached to the plywood with screws from the coop side since the plywood is only 1/2". I should note that my coop is a converted horse stall in an ancient barn so I don't need to worry about weather getting in between the edges of the box and the wall.

 

[Mark Armstrong]

I used a couple of 2x2x8’s when building my coop with 3 braces, has worked fine for almost a year now.

 

[DrFeathers]

I have seen this idea before a few years ago and had forgotten about it. This just refreshes my memory as I'm getting to start my coop in the next week or so.

On another note...how are external nest boxes attached to the coop? I've been going through different forums and can't see how they're actually attached. All you see is the end results.

Seems like you got skipped.

To attach my external nest box I took a 2x4 the width of my next box and two shorter 2x4 pieces that would stick out from it. I used Long deck screws to through the long 2x4 into the ends of the short 2x4’s so it made it like the shape of the Greek letter Pi. Now you have a single unit - start screws in he long 2x4 before you have it up, line it up under the holes you cut in coop wall where the box will go and attach. Finally set nest box on top and screw down into the long 2x4 that is against the wall in a few spots and into each brace.

Does that answer your question?

See attached pic, from the side angle of my coop before attached run was built - you can see the nest box support from the side. I can go outside and take a picture from the under side of nest box if needed, but hopefully you got it.

BTW that’s a 4x4x4 Purina model raised up 2’ off the ground - in retrospect I wish I modified and made it 4x8x8 like a shed but with same roof instructions. The PDF instructions are free online and as simple to follow as assembling an ikea product.