Chickens and the roost.....

[greatchicken]

I have 29 10 week old chickens. I built them a very nice roost about 2 weeks ago and they will not use it. Is there anyway to get them to even try it?

 

[ChickenGirl3]

Put all of them one the roost a night they will eventually get the hang of it.

 

[caspernc]

What type of chickens and how high is the roost?

 

[greatchicken]

I have some RIR, SLW, and BR. The highest is 5 feet but the bottom 3 are less than 4 feet. The bottom one is 2 feet off the ground.

 

[Zaxby's2]

Is there a ladder/plank leading up to your roost to make it easier for your
chickens to get to the roost? We keep one for ours, though I'm
not sure how necessary this is.

 

[YYZ]

I had the same situation. I didnt worry about it, and then all of a sudden a couple were using it. Mine may be to close to the roof. A 14 year old boy built my house so i didnt really know what i was going to get. So i really cant do anything about it. They also sit on top of the next boxes on a shelf. guess this is ok.

 

[Zaxby's2]

By the way, I know this must be obvious and I feel really dumb right now but how do I post a question? I'm new to this and can only figure out how to reply to other members' posts.

 

[gryeyes]

It's been my experience that the chicks will "practice" using the roosts during the day, but not actually start sleeping on the roost bars until they are 12 - 14 weeks old. I think it has something to do with confidence AND practice; balancing in one's sleep would need both attributes.

I didn't worry about it at all. Eventually they all started to do it.

 

[gryeyes]

Zaxby's2 :

By the way, I know this must be obvious and I feel really dumb right now but how do I post a question? I'm new to this and can only figure out how to reply to other members' posts.

When you are "in" a particular forum, with the list of threads, you will see a button similar to "post reply" at the top right of the list of topic threads, but it says "Post new topic." That's the place to start a whole new thread in that specific section.​

 

[Zaxby's2]

Thanks!!!!!:d