building roosts with dropping boards

[Herself]

How far from the wall should my roosts be? My chickens are B.R. s. Also what is a good height? This is a walk in hen house so they could be fairly high. I plan to have removable dropping boards underneath the roost so if I put the roost at about 3 1/2 to 4 feet with the board about a foot under that would they need a ladder or could they hop to the dropping board & then to the roost?

Herself
Mother of one grown daughter & one wonderful Westie boy.

 

[Baymen Moe]

I have the set up you have in mind. You can see it on my BYC page. I do have a ramp to the roost that was added after the pictures were taken. With heavy breed's like BR's which I have also, it's no so much getting up on roost, but getting down safely from a good height. My roost is 3.5 ft high and 1ft away from the wall. My droppings board is 8 inches below the roost.

So, getting up is not the problem, most chickens can fly quite high to get to a good roosting spot. It's the dropping down to a firm or slippery surface that could be problematic, but to a minor degree.