Chicken Stopped Roosting

[19marvinn]

4 birds per roost they each have a foot of space. Is that really not enough room to get settled?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Have you sat quietly and watched your chickens go to roost, especially younger ones, there's a lot of squabbling and bickering over who sleeps where, older birds already have claimed their spots, one foot of roost per bird is not enough unless the chickens want it to be enough.

 

[aart]

4 birds per roost they each have a foot of space. Is that really not enough room to get settled?

Probably enough roost length....but in a 4x4 coop it's probably hard for them to get up there.

 

[newmarch2014]

I have 8 chickens also, and I have a 4x8 coop with 16 feet of roost space and that is just barely enough for them since roost time is contentious. The pecking order has changed since the newbies have risen in pecking order and some of the older chickens have moved down in pecking order. The older girls struggle to find a spot they feel is far enough away from the chickens that they feel threatened by. I have watched my chickens and know who feels the safest with who and if it is too chaotic at bed time I hand place them in spots that I know they will settle in without as much stress. I put the Orps next to the nicer Red in the corner of the coop so they feel like they have a buffer from the Rooster for instance. Sometimes it works sometimes they still jump down and fuss. Sometimes I go out and am surprised that they have settled in fine. I did first notice the rash of bumblefoot that ran rampant through my coop when one of my heavier birds was not roosting. She was not yet limping but was reluctant to jump up on the roost. I did a health check and found the bumblefoot so I would make sure that the bird in question is not hiding an injury.

 

[19marvinn]

this particular chicken is high if not the highest in the pecking order. I have no way of making the coop bigger either.

 

[aart]

this particular chicken is high if not the highest in the pecking order. I have no way of making the coop bigger either.

Too small a coop is a very common beginners mistake, the marketing of such coops misleads many aspiring chicken keepers.
Space as well as ventilation is often rather inappropriate in the smaller coops, and they are hard to tend to.

Depending on your long term chicken keeping goals, you might want to start thinking about building a bigger coop.
This smaller coop can be very handy for growing out replacement layers, isolating rogue or injured/sick birds and broody hens.
Both coops attached to a dividable run can make for a pretty slick set up.

If you just want to keep a few egg layers, you might want to think about downsizing your flock so they are more comfortable in the small coop.

Meanwhile, they'll just have to deal with what they have.
You could go out every night after dark and put any birds on the floor onto the roost...
....tho that might not be possible as the small coops are hard to manipulate birds in.
Or just leave them be, it won't really hurt them to sleep under the other birds.

 

[TalkALittle]

If she's the last bird in the coop at night then she's only got 1 foot of roost to aim for. She's got to hit that landing zone right on the first try. Additionally, the bodies of the other birds are blocking much of the approach zone. Most of the squabbles in my flock come at roost time. In a perfect world every hen would be comfortable with only 1 foot of roost space and they would all file in and arrange themselves neatly on the roost from front to back. That very rarely happens though.

I agree that you have too many birds for a 4x4 foot coop. I also think that this is just the first (and probably the least) of the problems that overcrowding is going to cause you. How's the ventilation in your coop?