Chicken pile

[marcin]

Can anyone tell me why my young pullets (3 months old) won't sleep on roosts? They all try to pile up in one corner, with much squawking and complaining as they step on each other and fight over who gets to be the furthest in. Is this normal? I even tried leaving the heat lamp on for them, but it didn't seem to help. These girls also don't seem too eager to go outside in the daylight either. When they do, they're real jumpy and when one jumps in the air they all run for the door back into the coop. Three of them are buff orpingtons, three EE's and 4 Dominiques. The coop is plenty large enough for them, clean ... i can't figure it out. My red sex link hens are much calmer, and they were in the same coop until they were about 4 months old. Any thoughts?

 

[hrmalexandra]

Mine are 6 months and prefer to dogpile near the window in the coop rather than use the perch. And they play lots of silly games in the yard when I let them out. I wouldn't worry about it too much, they are silly teenagers right now!

 

[g_a_brand]

My younger girls ( and boys ) still do that every now and than and they are 18 weeks old .. I agree they are just being silly teenagers
and

 

[Big C]

You could try re-installing your roosts at a lower height until you find what they like, then gradually raise them as the grow.

 

[Cindy in PA]

I have the same problem with 20 week old bantams. They use the roosts during the day to relax, but at night I am getting only about 4 roosting and this is an improvement! The rest crowd in the corner at the plexiglass pop door where they sat since they were put in the coop at 4 weeks. There is also a plexiglass window behind the roost, but they are still slow to roost. With the lower roof over the roost they would actually be warmer, but they are dumb!! I hope they will eventually all catch on.

 

[urban dreamer]

It just takes time I guess. When I first brought my BRs home, they refuse to sleep on the roost inside the coop. My EE pullet insisit on sleeping on top of the nest boxes. They'll figure it out.