I have finally moved my chickens into their coop, they've been there for 4 days now. It is a two-level coop, the upstairs is enclosed with a pitched roof and has a 14" by 14" hatch cutout in the floor. From there I have a "chicken ladder" - a 14" length of plywood with "rungs" attached every 10"- going to the bottom level, which is a 3ft tall wired-in base. They have an access door to their pen from the downstairs.
For space and cleanliness reasons, I've attached their waterers and feeders in the downstairs part so that the upstairs in mostly for roosting. Besides, we're using rabbit waterers so I need to be able to hook them into the wire sides of the coop bottom, as I obviously can't set them up on the pitched roof "walls".
It WOULD be working great, except that the stupid chicks (10 weeks old now) WILL NOT use their ladder! They can't seem to get from the upstairs to the downstairs at all! In the morning I must hand-move them, and by the way they attack the waterers it is clear that they would probably let themselves get sick or severly dehydrated if I simply left them until they "figured it out". I even moved the food upstairs temporarily so they can at least eat in the evenings - we herd them to the coop at night as they haven't quite figured out how to get back in from their pen, although they can get out once I open the access door. But they can't figure out the ladder and I have tried everything... scattering treats on every rung/step to lure them, "teaching" them by walking them up and down the ladder by hand, putting a few through the hatch in the upstairs floor and making them hop/fly down... but none of them can spontaneously use that ladder in the least. It is pretty steep, but still... with the rungs I thought they'd be able to use it okay... it's only 3ft from the bottom floor to the upstairs hatch, so even with a steep pitch to the ladder it's not that much of a drop anyway.
Of course that ladder is screwed into the structure at several points so taking it out would be a real pain... not to mention that I don't care to crawl over the pooped-on wire bottom of the coop to work on it, if I can avoid it. Is there a way to get those chicks to use the durn thing without ripping it out and building another one?
I thought chickens ladders were super simple and basic... why don't my chickens use mine?
For space and cleanliness reasons, I've attached their waterers and feeders in the downstairs part so that the upstairs in mostly for roosting. Besides, we're using rabbit waterers so I need to be able to hook them into the wire sides of the coop bottom, as I obviously can't set them up on the pitched roof "walls".
It WOULD be working great, except that the stupid chicks (10 weeks old now) WILL NOT use their ladder! They can't seem to get from the upstairs to the downstairs at all! In the morning I must hand-move them, and by the way they attack the waterers it is clear that they would probably let themselves get sick or severly dehydrated if I simply left them until they "figured it out". I even moved the food upstairs temporarily so they can at least eat in the evenings - we herd them to the coop at night as they haven't quite figured out how to get back in from their pen, although they can get out once I open the access door. But they can't figure out the ladder and I have tried everything... scattering treats on every rung/step to lure them, "teaching" them by walking them up and down the ladder by hand, putting a few through the hatch in the upstairs floor and making them hop/fly down... but none of them can spontaneously use that ladder in the least. It is pretty steep, but still... with the rungs I thought they'd be able to use it okay... it's only 3ft from the bottom floor to the upstairs hatch, so even with a steep pitch to the ladder it's not that much of a drop anyway.
Of course that ladder is screwed into the structure at several points so taking it out would be a real pain... not to mention that I don't care to crawl over the pooped-on wire bottom of the coop to work on it, if I can avoid it. Is there a way to get those chicks to use the durn thing without ripping it out and building another one?
I thought chickens ladders were super simple and basic... why don't my chickens use mine?
ight, then may need to build one that reverses on itself, literally a landing midway. My nests are 24 " up. 1st tier roosts also 24" up and 2nd tier staggered back towards wall, 48" up. They all jump up to them, first to 24" then to 48 " one. They jump to nests too for laying. Have not used the ones on floor level yet. They simply flutter/jump to get down. (If I was to add a 3rd tier, they would then jump to the rafters and be pooping on the flourescent lights. And I would then have to enclose my ceiling fan.)
