Building Coop Question

[John Chicken GB]

Putting in the perches for my bantams . How low from the ground should the first one be and how low from the roof should the last one be ? hoping to have four perches altogether . The coop is 4ft at the low end and 5ft at the high end of the sloping roof .

 

[teach1rusl]

If they're small bodied bantams (that didn't sound right, since they're bantams...lol - but I mean not silkies or cochins...birds like that), then they can fly very well. I would think that 3 ft. would be fine for the lowest (although you could certainly go lower), and I'd leave 18 inches of ceiling clearance for the highest roost.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know what your coop looks like or how many bantams you have. It sounds like you are making a ladder style roost.

The general rcommendation for ladder style roosts is a minimum 12" separation vertical and a minimum 12" separation horizontal for each rung. That is for full sized fowl. You could probably reduce that some for bantams. The minimum is so the higher ones don't poop on the lower ones when roosting. It has nothing to do with access. I'm not sure if you have enough room for that. You can use a greater separation if you want. If they can, they will all want to squeeze onto the top rung anyway.

How high off the floor for the lowest rung? My full sized fowl have no problems jumping/flying up to my 4' high roost. Bantams fly better than full sized fowl. My 2 week old chicks have no problems jumping/flying three feet horizontally and two feet vertically. I don't have a good idea for the bottom rung really. I'd probably start 2 feet high, but that is just a feel. Nothing real solid to back it up. They'll have no problem with that as long as they are a breed that can fly. Yes, I mean Silkies.

How far below the top? They can sqeeze into a fairly tight space, so from that aspect, you don't need a lot of room. But how is your roof made and what materials did you use? Are they going to be exposed to freezing material if they are up against it. I'd suggest leaving enough room that they can easily stand up and not touch the roof as a minimum. Then what does your ventilation look like? I have my ventilation up high. Chickens should not roost where they are in a draft in colder weather. I keep my roosts below any possible drafts created by the ventilation.

How high do the roosts need to be? They will instinctively want to roost on the highest thing around. The dominant ones will get the highest roosts. This goes back to how many you have and how long your roosts are. The minimum height for the roosts they will sleep on is higher than anything you do not want them roosting on. This usually means nest boxes, though in some cases it could be something else. You don''t want them sleeping in nest boxes since they poop a lot at night. You don't want messy eggs.

It's hard to give hard and fast numbers since all our coops look different and we have different chickens. Hope whis helps some.

 

[John Chicken GB]

Quote:
Thanks for the info , all very helpful . Find me on fb and see pics of coop ! John Massey ---pic of crowing Black Rock !