First Coop - Officially addicted

[Gsnake35]

Will do Blooie. thank you all for the feedback.

Will the chickens eventually want to roost up on the roosts i put in on their own or is this something i have to train them to do? they seem to have no interest of sleeping anywhere than on the floor?

 

[AlHawk]

Thank you Blooie. I "suffer" from pullets thinking those boxes are great sleeping beds. I now have to clean them out and I'm going to cover with feed bags and get them used to the roosts more.

 

[yochickiemomma]

It looks great! I wish my coop was as big as yours then I could get more chickens my only concern is ventilation. Do you have enough for your hot summers? Right now its not too big of a deal.

 

[aart]

Will the chickens eventually want to roost up on the roosts i put in on their own or is this something i have to train them to do? they seem to have no interest of sleeping anywhere than on the floor?

Eh.....they might find them themselves eventually,
but I would put them up there a few times just to see what they do,
put a sprinkling of scratch grains on the ramp.....show them the way.

They are still pretty young and may be warmer sleeping together on the floor for now, it's not really a problem.

 

[Gsnake35]

in regards to ventilation i do not have enough at this point. I noticed that this morning as the coop has been closed up b/c of the cold and the humidity was at 80% which i think is high and worried about frost bite?? i am going to put in some roof vents in the next few days in hope to rid the coop of some of that moisture. Anyone have any idea on what humidity level is too high?

and thanks aart - i will work on 'teaching' them this is where they are supposed to sleep!

 

[Blooie]

Will do Blooie. thank you all for the feedback.

Will the chickens eventually want to roost up on the roosts i put in on their own or is this something i have to train them to do? they seem to have no interest of sleeping anywhere than on the floor?

This is a response I posted a long time ago, when I was trying to figure out roosting whys and wherefores.....

Chickens are a lot like this old lady - not real big on change. I would suggest that you go out after dark and, with as little light and fuss as possible, put them on the roost one at a time. When you put one up there, stand there and pet her quietly for a few minutes until she settles down. Then repeat for the rest. Note : This is one of those rare times in life when a flashlight with drained batteries is your friend - it's dim but trying valiantly to put out a little light, and "a little light" is just about the right amount.

That's the advice I was given. Let me tell you, with 22 chickens (most of which didn't like me much to start with) it turned into an episode of Keystone cops! They were all huddled in a corner in a big pile of feathers. I reached into that pile, not knowing which chicken or which end of said chicken I was grabbing. I put him or her on the roost, petted for a few minutes, then reached for the next one. I got a few up there. Um, for a few minutes. Then it became a game of "Hokey Pokey". You put the Wyandotte on, you put the Orpington next, you grab an Easter Egger and you put it with the rest. You do the Hokey Pokey and you keep on loading more - and that's when they all jump down." <sigh> Admit it, you sang it, didn't you?

So, after a couple of nights out there with frostbitten fingers and much wiser chickens, I gave up. A wise friend said that they'd get up there on their own when they were good and ready. I liked that advice waaay better than the advice I'd been following, so that's what I did. I still did, however, go out and check them every night just to see if they'd actually figured it out.

One night I went out there as usual and shined the dim flashlight on the roost. Nothing. But I got this creepy feeling that something was watching me. I caught just a hair of movement in one of the studs of the coop wall - a dark blob was up there watching me. As the kids say, OMG!! I hot-footed it out of that coop with my heart thudding and at that point realized I'd have no need to use a restroom for the next few hours. But then I kept thinking, "I've got rats in my coop! How am I gonna get those rats out of my coop?" So I ran into the house, grabbed a bright, BRIGHT flashlight, and I went back out there. I was so brave! I opened the door back up a crack, shined that light where I'd seen that movement and guess what I saw. Not rats, I saw chickens. Chickens roosting in every exposed stud frame in the entire building. Oh, yippee - they were roosting,finally. I got a couple of shaky, not very good photos of them up there and then I went back inside. The heck with it. They were now roosting on 2x4s and if those weren't the ones I'd carefully designed and put up for them then so be it. They'd figure it out when they got to big to fit up there. Me? Well, it took a few weeks for that creepy, something's-gonna-get-me feeling to leave when I'd go out there. But eventually they all started roosting in the right place and they figured it out without my help. Good thing, on accounta after that I'm DONE helping them learn to be chickens.

 

[aart]

in regards to ventilation i do not have enough at this point. I noticed that this morning as the coop has been closed up b/c of the cold and the humidity was at 80% which i think is high and worried about frost bite?? i am going to put in some roof vents in the next few days in hope to rid the coop of some of that moisture. Anyone have any idea on what humidity level is too high?

and thanks aart - i will work on 'teaching' them this is where they are supposed to sleep!

Check the humidity outside too.
Temp and humidity are generally the same inside and out with adequate ventilation....tho that can vary thru out the day and night.

 

[ECBW]

Regarding interior humidity, good point on comparing to outside. Rainy day will give you 100%. However, consider gable vents with shutters if you don't already have them.

 

[Gsnake35]

I went out and checked again. Inside is 75% and outside is 65%. Windows were not fogged or frosted however i am going to add roof vents. I have a gable vent on each end (14 x 14") and one small 4" inch vent on the long sides however i think the roof vents that i add will help get the humidity trapped near the roof out. I'll keep you guys posted how much, if any, it helps after i install.

Blooie - loved the story! guess sometimes they are going to do things when they want to do them!