has anyones chickens not roosted until close to laying?

[HSNEK]

Mine were so old when they used their roosting bar!!! as I said above they were around 26 weeks. They are now 9 mo and always roost with no issues. so my advice is let them cuddle puddle as long as they want they will figure it out. Oh and I still only have 3 laying so the roosting and laying didn't have anything to do with each other.

Oh where in NE are you? I am in MA. My EE was my first to lay. I think she was around 22 weeks? so yours may lay around the right time since they are still young and days will start getting longer so another 6-8 weeks will be sometime in March so betting they will start laying around then. I think the shorter days has delayed a few of mine from laying since they are now just over 9 mo and I am still waiting for 4 to start laying..... LOL

Thanks that actually makes me feel better. My chicks were slow to figure out a nipple waterer and now I suppose slow to also roost as well! I guess they just don’t like change… I am in NH btw. Appreciate the response!

 

[junior67]

Thanks that actually makes me feel better. My chicks were slow to figure out a nipple waterer and now I suppose slow to also roost as well! I guess they just don’t like change… I am in NH btw. Appreciate the response!

mine figured out the nipple waterer right away but I also started them with one at a day old. I put a roost in their brooder when they were around 2 weeks old and they would use it during the day but not at night. Once they moved to the coop they didn't use the roost at all for a while, then would hop up there to check things out but never to sleep. I even put a smaller roost (lower) in there thinking maybe the other one was too high. Yup that didn't even work forever. haahaa! but they eventually figured it out. I am sure yours will too.

 

[CedarLane]

Chicks are funny! We had picked up 6 layer chicks in town before schools were closed for Covid in 2020. Due to "chick shortage" at the time, we couldn't get the rest of the chicks (30 layers and 15 meat birds) we wanted for 4 more weeks...

The oldest 6 (Barred Rock & Wyandottes) had absolutely no interest in roosting. Once they got a little older, they had the full run of the chicken house and preferred to sleep underneath the nesting boxes. It was actually the littles who taught the older ones to roost.

When the little ones came, DH put a divider in the coop because we didn't want the older ones to pick on the little ones. Then he set up 2 smaller brooders 1 for the "meaties" and one for the layers. They were so entertaining. As they got a little older they were soon sitting on top of the heating pad... and then sitting/roosting on the sides of their brooders and visiting the other brooder. One of the Freedom Rangers frequently went to visit the layers. I finally stopped moving him to the other brooder (Seemed he had one of the layers he liked to lay beside. They were often together).

It took a little longer than planned for my husband to have the time to move the meat birds to their outdoor pen (hoop coop) so before long the layers were going wherever they wanted. They were in whichever brooder they wanted to be in and even flew up to the high divider between them and the older chicks. One of the older Wyandottes ""Dottie" would fly up there to look at and observe the littles. I told my husband we really needed to remove the divider when we observed them all roosting on the divider rather than on the actual roosts. It was higher than the other roost in their part of the pen. As they got older, they were starting to run out of room on the top of the divider. It was comical to watch them look for their spot. (We were not keeping all of them...most of the layers were going to my sister after they were out the the brooding stage, and it turned out to be a little longer than we planned. I know some are thinking maybe the coop was too small. It would definitely be too small if we kept them all, but they had plenty of room while they were growing.) Dottie was still the only older one to attempt roosting. The other older ones didn't start roosting until awhile after the dividing wall came down. Even though they would have had the same opportunities as the younger ones had to roost, they didn't roost until they started seeing the younger ones roosting.

After the meat birds were processed, half of them moved to the outdoor pen until they went to my sisters and they all had plenty of room as they grew to full-sized.

One thing about this group of chicks that always puzzled me was that the production birds (Amberlinks and Isa Browns) consistently laid in the nesting boxes but the heritage birds did not. They always lay in the same corner. At nearly 2 years old they still continue this way. Strange....