Droopy Tails While Roosting?

[CheekyMare]

I offered both types as I don't know what chickens prefer. It seems Belizean chickens like branches. ETA: and all my chickens tails droop when sleeping.

 

[travhal]

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Are you saying tails down while roosting could be a sign coccidiosis? I don't want to belittle the question but the angulation of the tail is controlled by muscles. While sleeping the tail muscles relax like all the other muscles in the body. Therefore relaxed tail muscles = downward angled tails.
This should help answere the other question about 'locking tendons'. With all the muscles in the body relaxed there must be another means of keeping the feet firmly gripping the branch/roost at night. It makes sense that evolutionary adaptation would request a locking mechanism for this purpose. A bird that evolved to have a locking mechanism for secure perching at rest and continues to display this mechanism through domestication should be considered a 'true perching bird'. That would be my argument anyway.
You wont find 2x4's naturally in a forest and 'I think' a rounded branch would be easier for gripping in a tree all night through strong winds. Which I have seen my chickens do.

This was from my experience, I have never noticed my hens with their tail down untill they got sick.

 

[WalkingTreatMachine]

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I'm just taking it all in and speculating here, but I think the balance theory makes the most sense with regard to downward tails while roosting. One of the primary functions of most animal tails is balance. It would then make sense, that while being upright, an upright tail would facilitate balance better than a downward tail would, and while roosting, a downward tail would help the chicken balance on the roost much better than an upward pointing tail. A downward tail during waking and walking hours, seems to likewise signify a lack of balance in some way as well.

 

[WalkingTreatMachine]

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Great automocoop!! An awesome example of repurposing

 

[travhal]

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What bedding are you using on the floor of your coop? Good idea with using a bus as a chicken house.

 

[WalkingTreatMachine]

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Shedding of water- yes this also makes great sense due to the location and orientation of the cloaca. Thanks! Glad the droopy tails are not an indication of illness in this case

 

[Kadjain]

It's kinda funny how in the automocoop pic all the birds are on the natural round branch roosts and not one is on the cut lumber. Hmm...

 

[epeloquin]

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If that were, in fact, true, then it would not be ridiculously easy to remove a chicken from a roost at night, would it? But as anyone who has lifted a chicken off a roost at night knows perfectly well, their feet cannot "lock" onto the roost.

You can argue with me all you like, it is not my opinion, this is fact, it is their anatomy and it is well attested to in the literature. When we say 'lock' it doesn't mean like a vise for crying out loud. But it is sufficient grip so that they don't topple over when they are at rest. The reason you can so easily lift them from their roost is because when you lift the bird their leg will begin to straighten out and the flexor tendon relaxes which loosens their grip on the roost.

I think some people like to argue just to argue.

 

[travhal]

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I think it is because the log perch has a larger base to hold on to and also it is smart of them because if they were on the perch with cut lumber they would be craping on each other, since it is close to being vertical and they would be above the chickens on the lower perch.

 

[epeloquin]

I would bet that if you offered chickens a tree branch of 1 1/2-2 1/2" diameter (or a 2x3 or 2x4 with the narrow end rounded over and facing up) and a 2x3 or 2x4 as is with the wide side up, they would pick the tree branch or narrow end of the lumber over the wide end every day of the week and twice on Sundays. As has been established in this thread, their feet are designed to grasp a rounded roost in the 1 1/2 - 2 1/2" size range.