Help! Adult hens won't let my young chics roost at night

[kkelly003]

Hi!
I have 7 adult chickens and 3 ten week old chics.
The chics want to roost at night with the others but they bully them off of the roosts!
What can I do??

Thanks!

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

How big is your coop? How many perches do you have? If you have the space, you may just want to add another perch away from the first one. Maybe you could just go out when it's nice and dark outside, and put the chicks up with the big girls.

(Maybe post some pictures of your set up)

 

[Ridgerunner]

Mine do the same thing, usually until the pullets start laying. Then they move onto the main roosts with the adults. I don't care where mine sleep as long as it is predator safe and not in the nests. They will work it out when they mature.

To avoid mine sleeping in the nests I put in a juvenile roost, lower than the main roosts, higher than the nests, and horizontally separated from the main roosts by a few feet. My coop is big enough I can do that.

I'll include a photo of my juvenile roost. The tops of the nests are a droppings board. Wish i'd designed that part better.

 

[Lovem all]

Don't worry about it. They'll eventually allow them. It might take some time though. Same thing happened with mine. It's a pecking order thing.

 

[Sonya9]

Hi!
I have 7 adult chickens and 3 ten week old chics.
The chics want to roost at night with the others but they bully them off of the roosts!
What can I do??

Thanks!

That is perfectly normal, I have two 12 week old chicks and neither are allowed on the roosts. One sleeps above the window and the other hides behind the geriatric Buff Orp hen. When they get older the big birds will let them roost on the main bars.

Only time I would see it as a problem would be if there was a single chick that had no siblings to roost/sleep with.