Chicks don't sleep on their roost

sunnydee

Songster
11 Years
Jul 17, 2008
556
2
139
Maine
My chicks are 6 weeks old now and still not sleeping on their roosts. I see them on it during the day but at night they all jump up in the window and pile on top of each other! Should I move them each night and put them on the roost or just let them be?
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I have two sets of chicks. One set it about 8 weeks old and the other is 5 weeks.

The 8 weekers were sleeping on a roost in their brooder in my house at 2 weeks old. I just put them on it everynight for a couple of nights and they got it
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The 5 weeks were on their roost for the first time last night. But tonight I can't get them to stay on it! I just can't get these guys to get the hang of it
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Good Luck!
 
I had to put each of my chicks on their roost after dark for about 4 days before they got the hang of it. Remember, they don't have any older chickens or a mama hen to teach them where to sleep! Good luck!
 
How high is your roost? From 3-5 weeks old, my chicks never much used the roosts in the brooder, they were maybe 2" high. However, the first night in the coop, about a dozen used the 2' high roost. The next week, about 16 were using the roost. The next week it is 20 of 25.
 
One of their roost is about 6" off the floor, and another about 6" higher than that one. I went out last night and took them all off of the window sill and tried to put them on the roost. They all woke up and started eating! by the time I got back in the house they were all up on the window sill again, pilled on top of each other! Silly silly chickens.
 
thank your for the advise. I am going to try to put in a roost as the same height as the window sill.
 
If you put the roost a little bit higher then the sill the girls will be more apt to go to the upper roost. That is just a birds nature, to go up, most of them anyway!

My birds all go to the best spot!(High as one can get) even my Silkies that are said to "not roost".
 
Mine are eight weeks old tomorrow. We put a board between two chairs in the coop for them to roost on right now, the roost is going up this weekend. They're all roosting on it every night when I got out there to check, this just started over the weekend.
 
My chickens all loved the sill too. They had to get on the roosts to get over to it, too. At 14 weeks I added a new banty rooster, who was pushed out of the sill when he tried to go there. He set up on the roosts, and the others followed immediately. Dang fool greedy chickens didn't want the little guy getting all that space to himself. It's better than seeing 6 chickens in a 20 inch window, though.
 

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