Chickens don't use roosting bar at night

[ehoneybee]

It's not a problem is it? They all sleep in the nesting boxes, which I imagine will just mean I have to clean them out more not that they lay in them anyway (they prefer the space under the roosting bar lol). These are new chickens we got from a friend. Our other chickens were very by the book!

 

[h2oAPBTs]

are the boxes higher than the roosts?

 

[ehoneybee]

No they are below.

 

[Folly's place]

Did they have roosts before? Is there enough roost space for them? They may be discouraged from roosting by the resident hens, and things will sort out in time.
Try placing them on a roost bar at night, not close to the older birds.
Mary

 

[lazy gardener]

Agreed with Mary. How many birds, what are the dimensions of your coop, how many l.f. of roost space, how high are those roosts? A pic would be helpful.

Your birds need to be trained to the roost. But first a bit of problem solving is in order to find out why they are not roosting. I would block off the nests at night, every night, and open them back up in the morning. If they do not then use the perches, I would place them on the perches at dusk every night, and continue to keep the nest boxes blocked off at night until the problem is solved. IMO, it is a problem, b/c birds allowed to sleep in and foul the nest boxes will make it so NO ONE can use them.

 

[orrpeople]

I have a small batch of "youngins" that really wanted to cram all together in a nesting box. But, like the great advice suggested above, I took them out ( dark, dark is best because then they won't move - if you do it at twilight, they may move again) and put them on the roosts. It can take a few times (4-6), but they'll get the hang of it and the older girls will get used to seeing them there too.
Chickens are a lot like Jr. High kids in a cafeteria... Some of them think they need to take their trays and cram themselves into the bathroom...

 

[aart]

How many birds, what are the dimensions of your coop, how many l.f. of roost space, how high are those roosts? A pic would be helpful.

Ditto Dat^^^ Important questions.....
....also how long have these birds been at your place?

I rigged a cover for nests, easy to use if the need arises.
Flip it down an hour before roosting time, flip it back up when I lock up after dark.

 

[ehoneybee]

Did they have roosts before? Is there enough roost space for them? They may be discouraged from roosting by the resident hens, and things will sort out in time.
Try placing them on a roost bar at night, not close to the older birds.
Mary

They're currently in their own coop and the resident hen is in her own coop. The coops each hold 8 and 4 birds respectively. I don't know if they
roosted before, she had a barn. They roost a lot on the bars in the run, though. I like the idea of cosong up their boxes. They lay with in the boxes and under the roosting bars. I will post a pic in a few.

 

[lazy gardener]

Giving exact dimensions is really what is required to give appropriate information. Chickens are flock animals, so they don't do well when forced into multi coop set ups to provide enough room. When you say the coops hold 8 or 4 birds, that leads me to assume that those coops do not provide the minimum recommended spacing of 4 s.f. of open area per bird, and 1 l.f. of perch space per bird.

 

[ehoneybee]

Giving exact dimensions is really what is required to give appropriate information. Chickens are flock animals, so they don't do well when forced into multi coop set ups to provide enough room. When you say the coops hold 8 or 4 birds, that leads me to assume that those coops do not provide the minimum recommended spacing of 4 s.f. of open area per bird, and 1 l.f. of perch space per bird.

They do. Her are some pics. The brown one holds up to 4 and the blue one holds up to 8. The brown one has 1 hen and the blue one has 3. We do not have fires that close to their coop, btw!