Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[thebirdguy]

Mine are 4 feet off the ground and are made from 2 2x4s screwed together. They don't need a ramp to get to them, Here's a picture of one.

Can someone tell me the right size and height i should have for a roost.
How big, how wide, do they need the edges trimmed. How far off the ground should they be. Do they need a ramp to get to them?

 

[nanaimochick]

I found a fairly strait tree branch and put it about 2 feet up, its around 2" in diameter but tapers. I mount it so it is removeable for bigger cleaning times.

 

[Ridgerunner]

There is a difference in what they need and what is convenient for you or them. They don't need much, but there is nothing wrong with making it easier for them or for you.

The height is the easiest answer. Make them higher than anything you don't want them to roost on. How much higher? I hate hard and fast number answers. As soon as you give one, somebody comes up with an exception. The chickens need to see the roosts as the highest thing available for them to roost on. Maybe that is 6", maybe a foot higher than anything else? I suggest you keep them as low as you can while still making them clearly higher than anything else. This is just my opinion, but I think there is a lot of unnecessary worry about chickens, especially the heavy breeds, hurting themselves when they jump down from high perches, but animals do occasionally hurt themselves. I don't know of any benefit to having an extremely high roost. Besides, one of the best times to catch a chicken for treatment, inspection, or marking is when they are on the roost. Make it easy on yourself.

Do they need a ramp? If you have Silkies or something that can't fly, yes they will need a ramp or a sloped ladder they can hop up. Mine have no problem jumping up to my roosts, which are 4 feet off the floor. Mine are full sized chickens, not bantams or the supersized Jersey Giants. I'm sure mine could get to roosts a lot higher if they needed to, but a lot of them choose to use the top of the nests as an intermediate step. From watching them get up the 4 feet, I believe most of that wing flapping is for balance more than actual flying. So whether you need a ramp or ladder of not depends on your unique circumstances, but giving them the option does not hurt, even when they don't "need" one.

What size do you need? I use tree branches that go from maybe 4" diameter to 1-1/2" diameter. The chickens don't seem to care what diameter they are. They roost on all different diameters, wherever they feel like. There is a theory that in cold weather, it helps to have a big flat perch so the chickens can cover their feet with their feathers when they roost on cold nights. I don't live where it gets that cold, seldom much below zero Fahrenheit, and when I see mine squatted down on the small sections of my tree branch roosts, I can't see their feet because of their feathers, but maybe there is something to that theory. I can't say that theory is bunk, but in my experience, it is not necessary. If I lived where it gets to -30 at night, I might feel differently.

Do you need to trim the roosts? If you use boards, I would. It is not so much for the comfort of the chicken's feet as they curl around the edges, but I'd sand then to round off the edges to remove splinters.

How much roost space do you need? As much as you can reasonable provide. When they roost, they don't take up much space on the roosts, but they need space to spread their wings get to the roosts. Then when they get to the roosts, they will move around and position themselves so they can sleep in the positions their rank in the pecking order requires. The need room to maneuver. I've seen them knock each other off the roosts doing this. This includes being knocked off the wide portions of my roosts and not just the smaller sections, by the way.

But a big reason for extra room for me is that I integrate young chickens to my flock. Because they are young, they are at the bottom of the pecking order. Sometimes older hens are so brutal to the young ones that they leave the roosts and look for a safer place to sleep. The clearest example of this is where a broody hen has taught her chicks to sleep on the roosts, but when she weans them and they are on their own, a different hen goes out of her way to be brutal to them on the roosts. I've had these chicks leave the roosts and sleep on or in the nest boxes or even start to sleep outside the coop. I put up extra roosts to give these chicks room to get away from the bullies.

This kind of stuff does not happen each and every time and your circumstances may be different than mine. I'm sure others have had different experiences. If you have a lot of chickens, the average space needed per chicken drops because they don't take up much space once they settle down. So I just suggest as much as you reasonably can and see what happens.

 

[Beekissed]

Great answer!

 

[scottcaddy]

Ridgerunner, That was about what I have seen with our birds also. The more young stock you have the more room they need to settle down.

Scott

 

[flocksalot]

Great answer Ridgerunner!

The only thing I would add is that some breeds prefer to have more space than others. I think the standard figure is 1 1/2 feet of perch space but that doesn't apply to all. An example would be our Dark Cornish won't let other chickens snuggle up with them, where as, the Leghorns like to be tightley packed in with friends all around. So it always looks like we have room for more chickens, but that fearsome look the Cornish have is saying don't even think about it crazy Lady we could eat you ya know.

A useful idea for some is a landing perch. I position a perch straigh out across the other perches right smack in the middle so it sticks out a couple of feet. This gives them a landing spot and from there they pick and chose their spot to sleep. That way there is less jostling as late comers jump up and less standing on anothers back. They just walk down the perch and then slip into whatever spot they deem is theirs. Mine are all positioned about 5 feet in one house and 6 and higher in another. What can I say we have bouncy chickens.

 

[PtldChick]

OK, I can't read through 200+ pages of posts so I'll just ask the question. Some of you OTs have said No Treats. What do you consider a "treat"?

I do give my flock 'extras' above their feed, but it's always 1) free (or very low cost), 2) high in protein, like shrimp, cooked chicken, spent grain from beer making, etc., and 3) easy for me - I don't cook, heat, blend, etc. Just throw it out there and watch them gobble it up. I enjoy watching them run around after the goodies, or having them take them from me - it's entertaining to me so I get something out of it.

Do you consider this 'treats', or just a low/no-cost way of supplementing feed?

Thanks, OTs!

What I have learned from you in the last 9 months (and I'm a city backyard 'farmer'):

• My coop is not heated or fancy - just a 6ft chain link kennel with tarps on 3 sides and a vinyl roof, and my chickens are surviving and thriving quite well this winter.
• My dogs guard the chickens - no possum or coon is getting to the run through the backyard while they're home.
• My run is roomy with some cover and places for little ones to hide when being introduced.
• I no longer feel bad that my chickens don't want to be picked up or petted. If I need to get one, I can do so with minimal fuss.
• I've not let a cockeral try to peck me and get away with it.
• I did not use a light this fall/winter, although I've recently broken down and put a cfl in the coop (they're first year pullets).
• I don't regularly clean chicken poop out of the coop or run, I put down more shavings and straw and let them mix it in. When it build up enough, it gets moved to the compost pile.
• My last batch of chicks was brooded in the unfinished basement for about six weeks and then moved to one of the 2x4 brooder cages in the coop. I'm considering moving my next batch out even earlier, but that means a heat lamp in the brooder cage in the coop. Still debating that one.
• Almost everything I've used for my chickens was recycled, reused, free, off CL or already on hand. Not fancy, but functional. You're right, they're chickens, they don't care.

I like that a few of you have made comments about good farming and being lazy - meaning, finding the easiest, least work way to still get the job done right - keepers after my own heart!

I love

you guys!

 

[Beekissed]

I'm impressed!!! I'm also amazed that you've learned all those things and actually applied them. I think you will go a long way....

I don't think any OT calls extra food, in addition to regular feed rations, "treats". Treats are something you give to children at a birthday party. Leftovers from the fridge or garden and even supplements such as BOSS aren't really treats...they are just food on hand to give to the chickens, for whatever reason.

The leftovers go there if it's something the dogs won't eat and the BOSS~at least for me~is reserved for getting the bedding turned, or as a winter feed supplement/filler during slow down times. I rarely ever feed supplements during peak laying months, as the layer ration I use is very high quality and provides for their nutritional needs and their foraging provides additional variety and proteins.

I might feel differently if my chickens didn't free range all year and might feel inclined to give them some variety in their diets such as alfalfa hay/pulled greens, etc. just to give them something to do in a penned situation. When mine lived a more confined life, I built them a tractor so that I could give them that variety...so there is always a way, if it is important to you.

Keep up the good work and the learning process...it never ends!

Still learning here....

 

[Ridgerunner]

I call those things treats on this forum because that is common terminology used on this forum. When I'm not on this forum, I do not call anything like that treats.

Mine generally forage so they are not limited to what I feed them. Other than what they find on their own, the "treats" mine get are whatever kitchen waste goes out on the compost pile and garden waste, like bad tomatoes or cabbage leaves, things like that. Sometimes I'll consider the chickens in how I do thngs. Like when I harvest a several cabbages at the same time to make saurkraut or freezer kole slaw, I don't take all the leftover leaves out of the garden at the same time but space it out so they are more likely to eat all of them. Since mine forage, I don't worry about offering them a bunch at a time though. Whatever I throw out is not going to be that huge a percentage of their diet. I space some of it out so it gets eaten.

I do not buy anything like BOSS for them. There are plenty of weed and grass seeds for mine if they want something like that. I don't buy treats for my dogs either. If they want a treat, they can catch a mole. I think Beekissed knows I'm not being critical of feeding BOSS. Different people manage differently. That's their business.

When I confine mine, which I sometimes do, I will throw the extra stuff from the garden in there. But that is just stuff they normally get anyway. But I do watch how much I give them at a time a little more. Mine are in electric netting right now. Too many people have dropped dogs off in the country for the good life and I need to get my flock numbers back up. I lost so many this last summer and fall that I ran out of meat in the freezer and chickens old enough to process. Hopefully something else you've learned is that you need to adjust to the circumstances and not be too rigid.

There are a whole lot of people on this forum that have their chickens as pets or just in pretty confined conditions. Their chickens are not allowed to forage so everything they get in addition to their regular feed is what someone gives them. That is a different circumstance than I have so those people need to manage their chickens differently than I do. For a lot of those people, the extras they give are probably treats, much as they give treats to their pet dogs or cats.

 

[flocksalot]

With mine if they want corn they run across the railroad tracks, climb throught the fence and start picking on any corn lying around in the field. That's where my SSH other wise known as the speckled girls go to meet with the cock pheasant that thinks they are purdy. In other words they forage it, and Mr pheasant comes acourtin now. Right now we have a pretty good snow covering, so they are having a harder time getting to the grass or weeds, but can still get some cron on the stalks. On most days now I find them in the horses hay eating grass and picking at the chaff. They also do a tremendous job gleaning bits from the horse poop. This time of year I have to feed them, and right now they are going through a 50lb bag every three to four days. That's for about 150 chickens, so they are still foraging whatever they can. Over the spring/summer/fall seasons I go through a 50lb. bag over about three to four weeks. More if the weather is bad though. I also still have cabbage and brussel sprouts in the garden, and when the snow permits I pull up some for them. We give them all the scraps we have throughout the year.

If any of my chickens appear to slow or stop laying and there is no signs of molting I would check their belly fat. I haven't had this but once and it was due to my neighbor over feeding from his corn. He would come get eggs and throw them a bucket of corn unbeknownst to me. Throwing the corn that is. He's allowed to take all the eggs he wants as he is the best of neighbors. Anyway I found my egg count going down and needed to investigate. No pests, no known stress, no molting, no illness, HOLEY TOLEDO these girls are trying to look like me! We girls tend to carry any extras in that belly hip area, well chickens do too if you have ever processed a chicken you would see the lovely fat deposit that is heaviest in the belly. It also runs up on the sides of the thigh just like ours. Nature sure sucks sometimes. Anyway you can feel that fat in the belly of a live chicken too. Fat girls don't lay so well. Well eggs that is. I myself prefer to lie on the hammock out in the grove, but first I have to kick the chickens off. At my age I'm done laying eggs.

We lost one of our egg customers as they got chickens of their own. Pets really. One day she called and complained that she needed eggs as her 3 had quit laying about a month before and they weren't eating their ration anymore. I went over to check on them. Those girls were so fat all you would have to do is lay them out in the sun and they could fry themselves up real well. Even though I had cautioned them on over feeding they still did it. Three chickens don't need a ton of extra stuff. Keep in mind that if you have a lot of scraps and a small number of chickens you should really compost it. If they dig through the compost the will be getting a better balance than if you just toss it to them.

For those that can free ranging is one of the best things you can do for your chickens. Keep in mind you will have to deal with predators at some point. Yesterday I came out of the shed and all the chickens started growling at me. I was like "what is your problem" and then I felt the shadow. That was the first up close out in the wild Bald Eagle I have ever seen. I didn't realize their feet and legs were so yellow, and in my opinion he needed a manicure but I wasn't offering. My Dark Cornish were all ready to take him on too. He kept checking as the day went on and I kept vigilant. Chicken was not on the menu. A couple of weeks ago I had a Red Tailed Hawk grab the maroon stocking hat off my head. The hawks have often seen me with a parrot on my shoulder as I have many. I think he thought he was getting one. I did get my hat back as he had to drop it in order to clear our house that he almost flew into, so all was good. That and I didn't have a mark on me. Vigilance must be a priority when free ranging. Your chickens can and will run into all kinds of creatures that will think YUM, but the healthy food they will get is a benefit in by world. Just my two cents to add to Beekissed and Ridgerunners excellent advice. Oh and anyone else that dropped in while I lazily chicken pecked this out.

Now to get the chickens off my laying spot.