Hen not roosting

[hilashens]

Hi everyone,
New chicken mama here. I obtained a comet hen from a woman about 2 months ago. I’ve noticed that she often lays on the coop floor in the pine shavings. Sometimes she roosts. However. I’ve noticed lately when I was able to catch her that the previous owner had cut her feathers (she’s not a very heafty bird, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she was able to fly). It also appears her rump feathers were cut as well
Is this preventing her from roosting? I have a corner roost set and I think she could hop up if she needed. I feel bad and want to get her off the ground.

 

[sourland]

Trimmed feathers may impact her ability to reach the roost. Why not make her a ladder or ramp to reach the roost ?

 

[hilashens]

Trimmed feathers may impact her ability to reach the roost. Why not make her a ladder or ramp to reach the roost ?

The roosts were in the corner of the coop starting at the ground and moving upward. She would lay underneath everyone.
I have recently made revisions to the coop in preparation for winter as follows:
-Removed corner roosts
-Made a cheap poop board to eliminate excess fecal material of 8 birds from the coop
- put plexiglas over the “window” covered with thick mesh wire and sealed with caulking (from the outside- I don’t want them picking at the caulking)
-caulked seams of plywood (previous home owner had this barn and didnt do a very good job making it.
-started deep litter system (hay and pine shavings) and have chickens turn it daily by throwing BOSS and scratch into it
-made a ladder reaching the roost
(Until my next revision, the girls didn’t understand the ladder and I had to put everyone in the roost)
-today I added an Greenlite LED shop lite to the coop with a timer on our end. I’m one of the “meanies” that is making their girls lay through the winter. I got this light for THREE dollars from a worker at the local hardware store. He said he’s expecting more in. I haven’t been able to find ANY of these online except for the two light shop lights for $39.99.
Once I was going to shut the coop door for the night, the ladies were all up on the roost. They just couldn’t see the ladder well enough!

 

[aart]

Welcome to BYC!
How old is this bird and did you add her to an existing flock??

More info would help:
your flock size(numbers, ages, genders),
your coop(size in feet by feet with pics),
and roost length in feet,
might offer clues to if there is a solvable problem.

 

[hilashens]

She is almost 2 years old. She was added to my existing flock with one of her flock members (an almost 2 year OE) of 6 barred rocks that were hatched in April.
My coop is 8ft by 10ft. Roost is a 2x4, 8ft length.

 

[aart]

Wondering if she may be molting or getting ready to molt...'tis the season.
They can be uncomfortable when those new feathers start growing in and often will roosts way from the others to avoid the jostling that happens at roost time.
Any chance she's ill?
Is she otherwise eating/drinking/pooping/moving around OK????

8ft of roost for 8 birds might be minimal.
They will sleep on less but getting up and getting settled takes some extra space.
The poop board may help this depending on how it is installed.

- put plexiglas over the “window” covered with thick mesh wire and sealed with caulking

I hope you still have plenty of ventilation.

 

[hilashens]

She’s a healthy bird otherwise! One of the birds has some bouts of loose poop but I can’t determine who it is.
There is ventilation on top. The window was at the roost height, so I don’t want them freezing. This was an old horse barn. I’ve paid close attention to this site preparing for winter worrying about not doing enough for these birds but it seems we have it pretty well prepared!
My poop board isn’t pretty...literally a piece of plywood and 4 2x4s for legs and I will be making edges on it so I can put sand down.

 

[hilashens]

Just went out to look at her to get a picture and noticed this!!! My skin is CRAWLING. She has some mite crawling on her and I’m SO grossed out! HELP. I want to get this cleared up NOW.

 

[hilashens]

There are areas on her that look like thick black dirt.

 

[hilashens]

Update: I have gone to TSC and got Gordon’s brand permethrin 10 and treated all, the coop, removed nesting and sprayed nesting containers. I will replace pine shavings and hay when all has dried.