Why does it matter? We don't even have roosting bars in our coop (its a little small), but they all sleep together and don't seem to care. Is it really a problem? We clean out their sleepy area every few days and never gave it another thought!
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it doesn't necessarily matter, but they will be best off that way. Chickens were meant to roost. for many people, especially ones with busy lives like me, we don't have the time to clean out the nesting boxes, and once they lay eggs when they are older, we do not want them sleeping in the boxes and laying eggs in piles of poo.Why does it matter? We don't even have roosting bars in our coop (its a little small), but they all sleep together and don't seem to care. Is it really a problem? We clean out their sleepy area every few days and never gave it another thought!
My chicks started getting up on whatever they could as soon as their little wings would lift them up. I started out with a small coop. It came with a roost. I put it just above their heads and they would fly up on it when it came dark (their bed time). As they got larger, the small roost became crowded and the last hen trying to get up on the roost was getting pecked by the others. I kept a close watch on my chicks behavior as they grew and were changing. I read every article on BYC that might pertain to my situation. After 2 nights of the squaking when they went to bed, I realized something wasn't right for my girls, so I opened the coop and realized that they had outgrown their space and I needed to fix the situation very soon. The next day, with the help of my son in law, we enlarged their roost area, added another length to their current roost, waited for evening to come and went to observe their behavior as they settled in for the night on the roost. They went to bed cooing to each other, no squaking, just peace.I wouldn't even know where to fit a roosting bar in their coop!
I really wasn't worried about them roosting. I was worried about them sleeping in nest boxes and breaking eggs. My nightmare was egg eating chickens. Everyone said if that happens then you have to get rid of them. Boy that would be crazy my whole flock