Hi everyone! OK so we had one roost for our chickens and decided it needed to be more spacious for a couple reasons. 1, we have a few more chickens now than we had. 2, they're mostly pretty "fluffy" breeds (Australorps, Orpingtons, etc) and 3, some just don't want to be next to each other! Only a handful would use the roost and the others would crawl under the boxes and some would roost ON the boxes, leading to a MESS for me to clean up each and every day. I don't mind cleaning them of course, but it's like SUPER bad. So my wonderful husband built a really nice new roost for them with 3 different options of a perch and it's hinged so when we clean we lift it right up and hook it up to the rafters and it's completely out of the way. I go over tonight to check on them, turn on the heat lamps and shut the door, and not ONE of the little brats are on the roost! Heck one was laying outside in the cold on the ground. The others were either on the box tops, on the edges where their aim is perfect for me to clean up, or under the boxes. I put a few on the roost to show them how nice it was and that's where they should want to be (I know, it was a long shot) but only one or two gave it a fair chance, the others hopped off and wanted no part of it. How can I get them to use the roost and not the boxes? Heck I'd be happy if they'd go anywhere BUT the boxes. They are making them so nasty just in the course of one day that no wonder we're having laying problems :-( Any advice is greatly appreciated.
