Do your chicks sleep on a roosting branch or floor?

[musikfan6]

I have eight 7 week old hens, and they sleep in a variety of places in the coop. Three or four pile up together right at the opening to the run. Another one is over in the corner by herself, and two are often all the way up on the ledge. I put one of them on the roost, and she just stood there like "What do I do now??". They are so goofy and unpredictable. I"m still waiting for them to use the nice roosts that I installed. All that work and they aren't even interested yet!! Go figure.....

 

[Aeropennchick]

Mine are seven weeks and seem to be in a transition period. Some day time napping on roosts, and one or two will sleep on the roost at night, but mostly it's a pile on the floor.

They better figure it out when we move them to their big coop - don't want those poop boards to go to waste!

 

[Rock Home Isle]

My chicks will be 4 weeks at the end of this week. I have not provided them with a roosting branch...I think that maybe I should....I'll do it tonight.

 

[ChickenLisa3]

My 5 weekers are still sleeping on the floor.

 

[therainwoman]

I have 5 that are 3 weeks & 2 that are 2 weeks.They are in a wire dog crate with a heat lamp(under the dining room table)..I put a stick through the wires, 4" high,about a week ago & they are all currently sleeping on it..lined up in a row...when they are sound asleep their little heads sag down so the beaks are below their feet...pretty cute IMHO!

 

[sophiaw00]

My 6 weekers just moved to their coop. It has three roosts in it and they all pile up and snuggle under the roost. Silly chicks.

 

[csaylorchickens]

Just checked on mine last night to see if they would put themselves to bed and they did! They were also all roosting lined up in a row snug next to each other. They are seven weeks old today. I think I have seen them roost about two weeks ago off an on but I'm sure now they mainly just roost at night. Just give it time, and make sure you close off the nesting boxes so they don't get into a habbit of sleeping in the nesting boxes!

 

[mstailfeathers]

I am new to raising chickens. We have 1 Delaware(BJ Chick) Golden lace Wyndott(Crisco) 2 Americanas (Omelet and Colonel Sandy) they have all formed a nice family unit, plus they play well together. They are about 7 1/2 weeks old. Right now they are living in what we call the "redneck" double wide condo/apartment. We put 2 gigantic plastic Rubbermaid bins together created opening between both bins, viola double the space less irritation among the chicks(pullets). More room to roam and have fun with.

Regarding the roosting branch. I placed a dowel rod in the brooder when they we about 3 weeks old. All 4 of them thought the dowel rod was a pillow to lay their heads on not their feet at night. It was too cute seeing them do that. We see them roost some, usually they cuddle together on the floor like when they were babies. You would think at almost 8 weeks old they would all roost on the branch and the bigger dowel rod placed in their coop. Nope!!!! No matter what we showed them, (we placed each on the roost over a period of 3-4 days) every morning we have what we call the "chickie" (pullet) mosh pit. On the floor cuddling, either doubled up on each other, next to each other, underneath, over top, sideways, you name it, a chicken version of "twister". Some positions are downright laughable. Usually their heads were on top of each others back. They do not want a lamp on, I did a few nights ago and the ladies let me know in no uncertain terms(squawking and loud peeping) to "turn it off"!! I thought maybe they were not warm enough, guess they are. I even placed a couple of empty 2 liter plastic bottle on the floor, to get them to use the roost. Those silly chickens found a way to have a cuddling session, they were all on top the the plastic bottles(not the roost)doing chickie mosh pit. I gave up,, took the bottles out. I am worrying way too much. Each night they put themselves to bed in a mosh pit. I know they are happy as we do not hear anything except a sleeping peeping/snoring chicken. Now they do jockey for floor position, and it is funny to watch them settle in for the evening, as it looks like a chicken dance of sorts. One pullet wants this spot and just sit on top of the other one(go figure.) A few squawks, squeals, them all is quite for the evening. They will play on the roost during the day, like 1 or 2 at a time but that is it for now.

Our coop/run is under renovations, planned 2 roost about 4-5ft long each and the same height about 6-12 off the floor(wings are clipped. Matter of necessity, wished I did not have to do it)
I have given up trying to impose my idea of what chicken should be doing and how to do it. If they want to sleep on the floor in a mosh pit, even though they have a roosting place, well, they will do what they want to do(they are a bit stubborn) can't force them. If the chickies(pullets) are: 1. warm, safe, fed, access to water, and their environment is clean, then I am doing all I can for them. They get very vocal when something in their environment is not what it should be(even if it i 2am). They do not get vocal at night when they form their mosh pit, they enjoy the cuddling and companionship(bonding thing maybe?). I have noticed when their surroundings have the above things, I do not hear any loud unhappy squawks, peeps from of them. They are so quite sometimes that I forget I have chickens in the house. I do not know if this is normal, I figure quite = ladies are happy and content. They do everything else chickens do, scratch, take a dust bath, taught them about live worms, moths etc. I will leave them be, they know better what they want to do. These ladies can be stubborn when they want to. As a new chicken raiser I don't want to do anything wrong in their raising, I hope I am doing the right thing.

 

[CoopedUpChicken]

My 16 7 week old chicks have been outside since 4.5 weeks old when they were first introduced to their coop/run.
The first 2 weeks were a bit crazy for them when it came time to roosting.

Most of them automatically loved the roost bar (a 2x4) and I didn't have to show them... they just did it on their own.
There was a 30 minute game of "who roosts where" according to their pecking order. Chicks were being shoved off of the bar constantly, some where walking over others, and the silkies couldn't figure out how to get up to the roosting bar (even though there's a ramp).

The 2 silkies cried and cried wanting to join their 3 "friends" up on the roosting bar. So their 3 "friends" actually left the roost and slept on the ground with the silkies for about a week!

Finally, after a week, the silkies figured out how to get up to the roosting bar - and then it was another week of reordering everything because of 5 new birds being up on the roosting bar.

After 2 weeks, they have it pretty much downpat. No more falling chicks, no more 30-45 minutes of incessant peep crying and they all sleep in pretty much the same "order" every night.

Whew!

 

[Exactly]

I give mine the option because even if for nothing else, they seem to enjoy it. They start out playing, up and down, hanging out, eventually one their heads will drop and fall asleep.

I can't say there's any rhyme or reason to it, but it seems to be an individual thing, but also temperature related too.

The colder, the more apt they'll be to cuddle on the floor.