Height for chick roosts?

[Chickstarrs]

I am ready to fully integrate my chicks with my hens. I need to put in another roost for them first. My question is, do I need a lower roost for the chicks or are they able to use the big girl height which is 3ft? Chicks are 9 and 10 weeks.

 

[CommunistEgg]

I think they would be ok. My 7 week olds slept on the coop floor for the first few days until they got the idea. Then they had no issue getting onto the roost, which doesn't have a ramp.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know what your coop or roosts look like, that could make a difference. I integrate juveniles all the time. My brooder-raised juveniles almost never use the main roosts when there are adults using them. My broody-raised chicks will more often but even they often stop using the main roosts when the broody weans them and tops protecting them. After they mature enough to join the adult pecking order they move to the main roosts but until then they sleep somewhere else. The adults can be pretty brutal to them on the roosts.

As long as mine are not sleeping in the nests and are sleeping somewhere predator safe I don't care where they sleep. Too often that was my nests. So I installed a juvenile roost lower than the main roosts and separated horizontally a few feet. It is higher than the nests. It gave them an acceptable place to go safe from the adults. I don't know if you need to do something like this or even have he room to do it.

This has nothing to do with their ability to fly up to my 5 feet high roosts. I've seen two week old chicks up there with a broody hen. It has everything to do with the adults often not letting them use the main roosts.

 

[Chickstarrs]

My coop is 7.5 x 9ft. The hens have a roost on the long wall across from the nests 3ft high. I was going to put a lower roost on the short wall between the nests and the other roost. I just wasn't sure how high was good for the chicks. I did know it should be lower than the other roost but I didn't want the chicks to get hurt jumping/flying up and down. Good to know they are nimble little beasties.

 

[Ridgerunner]

At that age the chicks can fly better than the adults.

 

[M Brennen]

My adult birds roost in the rafters (7-8 feet high). The chicks are now just 8 weeks old and last night 22 of them were roosted in the rafters with the big birds. They don’t fly up from the ground, but fly up to a lower spot about 3-4 feet high first and then up to the rafters. Three feet high roosts should be fine.

 

[drinkoj]

When I put my younglings (3.5 weeks old) in the coop I put a approx. 2 ft roost bar up for them, while the big her chicks had a 4 ft high bar. After a few weeks, I put another 4 ft high, 3 ft long roost bar on the opposite side too. Two of the younglings still like the lower roost bar, while the two other younglings like to be with the big girls on the 4ft bars.