Chickens sleeping in run

[southfloridasilkies]

Silkies really can't fly, so no wonder they don't get up on roosting bars. Your set-up looks good for your climate, although consider adding a roof over at least part of the run area.
How many birds total?
And wide roof overhangs help a lot too.
How do you get around in there? And how is the hardware cloth secured? It's nice, but maybe not as safe from predators as it could be. Nice for Silkies, who won't fly up high anyway.
And these chicks don't have any adults to show them how to get to bed at night...
Mary

Sorry, I should have added more info. I didn’t have any recent photos. There is an area maybe 5x4 that is tarped where their food, water, and dust bath are in the run so that is sheltered from rain/shady. There is also a piece of the roofing material leaning up against the mesh that provides a large hiding area protected from sun and rain. The cloth is stapled into the wood. The only predator we have are hawks really. The whole coop is also under the shade of a very thick tree that only gets sunlight for a few hours in the afternoon. The run is about 4 feet high so we basically do our best chicken impersonation when getting around inside. The coop’s roof comes off and the floor slides out so it’s pretty easy to work with. We have 8 silkies total. They have ample space to get out of the rain in their run and I wouldn’t worry about them so much if they had done that but they were just standing there. It was our first real rainy day so maybe they just didn’t know what was happening?

 

[southfloridasilkies]

That's what I'd guess too.


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Thank you! I just updated it.

 

[ValarieF]

My initial thought is there is a reason they are not going in the coop at night. Perhaps something in there they don’t like. Not enough roosts in there, or room. To hot maybe. Something that scared them out one night and they just won’t go in anymore. I‘m not sure what it could be as I’ve never had this problem. I think photos would help too.

This was my initial thought as well

 

[southfloridasilkies]

Silkies really can't fly, so no wonder they don't get up on roosting bars. Your set-up looks good for your climate, although consider adding a roof over at least part of the run area.
How many birds total?
And wide roof overhangs help a lot too.
How do you get around in there? And how is the hardware cloth secured? It's nice, but maybe not as safe from predators as it could be. Nice for Silkies, who won't fly up high anyway.
And these chicks don't have any adults to show them how to get to bed at night...
Mary

Any more suggestions on predator proofing? I definitely don’t want anything to get to our little ones. Other than hawks, rats would be the next most likely culprit. We have two large dogs and have never seen any raccoons or possums in the yard. We also have a motion camera out on the area and so far have had no night time visitors. We don’t have foxes, coyotes, weasels, etc.

 

[Folly's place]

Were they shivering? Birds with normal feathering wouldn't care if it was a warm rain. These might.
How is that hardware cloth secured to the framing? Builder's staples are totally inadequate!
And you will find that raccoons, foxes, and weasels, at least, can be everywhere. Also critters will dig in, unless there's a dig proof barrier around it.
Happily most of us don't have bears, or cougars! Do you?
Bad experiences have taught us to be paranoid about security here...
Mary

 

[southfloridasilkies]

Were they shivering? Birds with normal feathering wouldn't care if it was a warm rain. These might.
How is that hardware cloth secured to the framing? Builder's staples are totally inadequate!
And you will find that raccoons, foxes, and weasels, at least, can be everywhere. Also critters will dig in, unless there's a dig proof barrier around it.
Happily most of us don't have bears, or cougars! Do you?
Bad experiences have taught us to be paranoid about security here...
Mary

Would you suggest screwing the cloth into the wood? The hardware cloth does extend about a foot around the outside to prevent digging. We live in the keys and really don’t have any critters basically. Unless you count the iguanas but they are vegetarian haha. No shivering at all just depoofed birds. It’s like 85 at night here right now

 

[Folly's place]

Don't know what lives in the Keys, true. For the hardware cloth, would have been better to wrap it around, so fewer seams, and overlap at necessary seams, Then staple to framing, and add wood strips screwed over the hardware cloth into the framing.
Hope you're right about your predators!
Mary

 

[SourRoses]

Hi fellow Floridian!
Your setup looks nice! I'm so happy to see you went with a fully mesh design for this climate!
The metal roofing is great (ours have it too) but it does transmit the heat. In the sun it can get as hot as a cooking element. I bet that's where your issue is stemming from.
The solution is to buffer it, either with insulation under the roof, a doubled up roof (put tin on top of the existing one with blocks or something between to create an airgap), a patio umbrella, a suspended tarp, etc.
For ours we used a Passion Fruit Vine... but that takes a while to grow and you need to solve your heat asap.
Love your little Silkies!

 

[southfloridasilkies]

Hi fellow Floridian!
Your setup looks nice! I'm so happy to see you went with a fully mesh design for this climate!
The metal roofing is great (ours have it too) but it does transmit the heat. In the sun it can get as hot as a cooking element. I bet that's where your issue is stemming from.
The solution is to buffer it, either with insulation under the roof, a doubled up roof (put tin on top of the existing one with blocks or something between to create an airgap), a patio umbrella, a suspended tarp, etc.
For ours we used a Passion Fruit Vine... but that takes a while to grow and you need to solve your heat asap.
Love your little Silkies!

Oh wow that looks beautiful! The roof is actually plastic attached to plywood. We were going to use shingles but worried the roof would be too heavy to lift easily. Everyone around us suggested the fully open style, I was hesitant at first after reading how much you need to prevent drafts but then realized we live in such a unique climate. We do have panels that fit over the mesh sides of the coop in case of heavy storming but then we’d probably just bring them inside if it got too rough out (hurricane). We are considering adding a fan to the coop, one of our breeders suggested that but I was wondering if they were so hot would they still sleep in their giant pile?

 

[southfloridasilkies]

Oh wow that looks beautiful! The roof is actually plastic attached to plywood. We were going to use shingles but worried the roof would be too heavy to lift easily. Everyone around us suggested the fully open style, I was hesitant at first after reading how much you need to prevent drafts but then realized we live in such a unique climate. We do have panels that fit over the mesh sides of the coop in case of heavy storming but then we’d probably just bring them inside if it got too rough out (hurricane). We are considering adding a fan to the coop, one of our breeders suggested that but I was wondering if they were so hot would they still sleep in their giant pile?

They also spend the hottest part of the day in the coop out of the sun so they know it provides shelter. For some reason they have just decided to stop returning there at night