Cockerel won't roost

[The Golden Egg5]

My cockerel, Espresso won't roost at night unless I manually pick him up and put him on the roost. He tries to roost on the entrance/exit door to the run. He is a 20 week old speckled Sussex. This usually would not be a problem because I'm okay with picking him up at night. The only problem is I am going backpacking across Transylvania, Romania for a week and have someone taking care of them. I am afraid he will try to attack them, even though he is very tame. I don't want to let him sleep there because I'm afraid of predators getting in. He sits under the roost acting like he is going to fly up, then hesitates and gives up. I have tried putting buckets under it to make the flight less, but he is still afraid to fly up. The roost is 4 ft tall.

Thank you in advance and sorry for the long post

 

[3riverschick]

That's your problem. the roost is too far off the ground. he's going to hurt his ankles if he tries to fly down from that high Roost. for a speckled Sussex you should be no more than 18 inches off the ground. he doesn't want to fly up because he doesn't want to hurt his legs when he flies down .just lower the roost . He's a Sussex I would be surprised if he attacked your keeper. I have Light Sussex.
I once got an elderly speckled Sussex hen from lady who couldn't care for it anymore .the birds' legs were all damaged & arthritic. it could hardly walk .she told me she had the roost 5 ft off the ground because of her guinea hens. this poor bird had been flying up and down off that Roost and had damaged its legs so much it could hardly walk . it was very sad.
Karen

 

[The Golden Egg5]

I will have to see what I can do to lower it. Thank you!

 

[Askme42]

That's your problem. the roost is too far off the ground. he's going to hurt his ankles if he tries to fly down from that high Roost. for a speckled Sussex you should be no more than 18 inches off the ground. he doesn't want to fly up because he doesn't want to hurt his legs when he flies down .just lower the roost . He's a Sussex I would be surprised if he attacked your keeper. I have Light Sussex.
I once got an elderly speckled Sussex hen from lady who couldn't care for it anymore .the birds' legs were all damaged & arthritic. it could hardly walk .she told me she had the roost 5 ft off the ground because of her guinea hens. this poor bird had been flying up and down off that Roost and had damaged its legs so much it could hardly walk . it was very sad.
Karen

Lol my RIR prefers to roost about 8 ft high on top of the coop.

 

[The Golden Egg5]

None of my other birds, including the other rooster, a barred rock, seem to have any trouble with it.

 

[aldarita]

Any way you can just add a lower roost and keep the other one?

 

[The Golden Egg5]

I don't think I can because the way it is laid out, the top birds would poop on the bottom ones. I did not build the coop, because it was already here when we bought our house. I would have set it up very differently.

 

[Sparrowsong98]

I don't think I can because the way it is laid out, the top birds would poop on the bottom ones. I did not build the coop, because it was already here when we bought our house. I would have set it up very differently.

Some chickens just roost on the floor when they are younger, then they learn about roosts and sleep there. I had 25 little pullets all over the coops floor for the first month, and then they realized that the old hens slept up above and started trying that. I would just give him some time. Also, he could feel that the roost is the other roosters land. he might not want to go up in order to avoid a fight. Do the roosters ever fight?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've had Speckled Sussex and many other similar sized chickens. They have no problems flying up and down from a 5' high roost. I've seen 2-week-old chicks fly up 2' and horizontal 3'. It was obvious watching them they could have gone a lot further if they wanted to. If your 20-week-old cockerel is healthy he should have no problems flying up or down if he wants to.

There are some conditions on that. With chickens there are always "if's". Show quality birds are usually pretty large for the breed. If they are really heavy they can injure themselves getting down. They may even have problems flying up. Is he that much larger than the rest of your birds?

If your coop is really crowded they may not have enough room to fly up and down. They need to be able to spread their wings and fly without bumping into things like nests, walls, feeders, or waterers. The higher the roosts the more clear space they need to land. If your other chickens are managing that, he should be able to also. As long as he is not injured I think it's a matter of "want to", not that he can't.

Do you have any adults in the flock, hens or roosters? Sometimes mature hens can be pretty brutal to an immature cockerel. Or a mature rooster may frighten him. Mine are most brutal to each other when settling down on the roost. My immature chickens very seldom use the main roost until they mature enough to force their way into the pecking order. That's such a consistent problem that I put up a "juvenile" roost. It's a little lower than the main roost, higher than the nests, and horizontally separated. That gives them a safe place to go that is not my nests. If your coop is big enough you might try something like that. You might need to set him on it a few times to get him to use it.

A week backpacking in Romania, that should be an adventure. Good luck!

 

[The Golden Egg5]

The boys do fight, but not aggressively and the Sussex is the head boy.

He is the same size as the other cockerel, mabye a little bigger, but not by much. He has an open area to fly up and over 2 feet of roost to perch on. The oldest birds I have in there are the 20 week olds. I also have a few younger birds in there.

Thank you so much for the help! I might try keeping half the roost at the height it is and moving the other half a foot or so lower. I feel like they might try to crowd up on the higher roost if I try that though. I can go take a few pictures if that might help. I might just have to leave the pop door open at night and let him sleep there until I get back. The run is predator proof, but it still makes me uncomfortable to do that.