chicken ramp ending short of ground?

[yyz0yyz0]

Due to the height of my pop door and the size of the run I'm wondering if the ramp needs to go all the way to the ground from the coop?

The main thing that makes me question this is that I currently have a temp ramp from coop the ground and only say 10% of the time does anyone use the lower third of the ramp. Most of them jump up or down in the middle, so does the ramp need to go to ground? If I raised any chicks in the future in this coop I figure I could always add an extension to the ramp till they can jump like the older birds.

thanks

 

[renardsubtil]

Having the ramp not completely on the ground is fine, I have a similar setup. Chickens can/will jump and to make it onto that ramp. I suggest making a step though so that the ramp rests on the "step" and gives the chicken more incentive to use the ramp as sometimes they can get lazy and just find a nice corner of the run to settle in - some kind of roosting training helps train them to not do this though so it may be worth looking into if you have a large run you let them wander into.

 

[yyz0yyz0]

the run is 12x12 so it's not small but I don't consider it big either. The temp ramp I have goes almost to the far side of the run, I can increase the angle to make it take up less space in the run. I am trying to make the run 24/7 safe for the birds so I may add some roosts to the run and if they use them in the warmer weather I'm ok with that once the run is ready for that.

 

[pm]

My ramp goes all the way to the ground, but the chickens usually jump/fly to the middle of the ramp which is about 18" off the ground at that point. My brother just has a little landing porch about 4 feet off the ground with no ramp. The pop hole is surrounded with sheet metal to foil climbing predators. I think he originally started them out with a small ramp and removed it once they got used to going in and out.

pm