Coop ramp/ladder

[chickkais67]

Just finished my coop this last week. I made a makeshift ramp out of leftovers and it seems to be a little tough for the girls to use, or maybe they are just not used to it yet since they are still young. Is there any generic criteria of how steep or how close steps should be for a ramp / ladder?

 

[dancingflower68]

They will probably figure it out with time. I just put my little 3 week olds out in their new run for a couple of hours today when it was warm, and I put one of them on top of the ramp, well, she took 2 steps and then kinda rolled the rest of the way down...oops!! I decided to let them go at their own pace after that!!

 

[cadeschicks]

I just moved ours outside yesterday. I had to pick them up and put them up in the coop last night. This afternoon I sprinkled some spinach leaves up the ramp and that seemed to get them interested in using it. Tonight they even went into the coop all by themselves.

Our ramp goes up 32" and extends out about 5 feet (the ramp is 69" long). I've seen pictures of much steeper ramps. But, to me, ours looks like a comfortable slope.

 

[Nsampsel]

When I put up my 1st ramp I had the "steps" about 6 inches apart. This was a bit far for young chicks so I went back & nailed another step between each 1 & they did fine after that. When I built the 2nd coop I just went ahead & spaced them about 3 inches apart from the start since I already knew that worked for even my smallest chicks.