Can someone please tell me why I never see roosts in the runs?

[krcote]

I have many roosts in my run, the girls love them.

 

[blueberrychickens]

I have 2 tree stumps & a roost, the girls are always hopping up on the stumps & hanging out on the roost. Heres a pic of the girls chillin on the run roost.

 

[patman75]

I have some tree limbs that the chickens hang out on during the day. They dont roost on them at night.

 

[patandchickens]

A reasonable number of people DO have stuff in the run for chickens to get up onto. As noted, it is only a good idea IF you have a top on your run and many BYCers don't, which is probably part of the reason you don't see it mroe often; also in a small run (which, again, is what many BYCers have) you can't install much in the way of 'habitat complexity' without making it quite difficult for a person to get around in there to clean etc;

and the biggest drawback IMHO is that it makes it a lot more work in many circumstances to get the chickens to spend their nights indoors during the summer, where it is safer. It can require you to do a lot of 'training' and manual relocation and so forth, which not everyone is willing to do (especially if htey're not home and are relying on an auto door).

So it's a tradeoff, IMHO, and more useful in some situations than others.

Pat

 

[cowchipss]

Maybe so you don't have to do hurdles every morning when you collect eggs...

J/k

 

[Arielle]

Much to my surprise the girls love to sit on old box frames--not the bed

an old box whose sides rotted out leaving the frame of a wooden box. Left them as points of interest in their run, to scoot around. Always someone or two or three roosting enjoying the day!

 

[EweSheep]

I have one small roost in the run and they use them from time to time during the day but they all go in the coop after dark.

 

[NWChicks]

We have a couple of branches angled through our run and the girls love to roost on them. They'll come out, scratch around for awhile and take a break up on a roost branch. They also like it because they can see further than when they're on the ground so I'll often see them up there checking things out. The like to "fly" off of it too.

 

[Cambium29]

My chicks have a few different "toys": a willow basket full of hay that they love to sit in, a cedar wood log they climb on ( I sprinkle crumbles over it and they love to peck it out of the bark), and a big driftwood root they play on and under. My chicks are pretty good flyers so usually they'll just fly up into my lap or sit on my shoulder, or the back of my chair. They like to sit in the windowsill, too.

 

[AlaskGirl]

Yep, short roosts in my pen too, just waist high due to a lack of covering and they could fly out if they had a hankering to do so. They will go back into the coop to roost when nap time rolls around, usually late morning...