Hens are not roosting!!

[BOs and Silkie]

My hens are not roosting and they are sleeping in the nest boxes. Any ideas how to make them sleep on the roosting bars. And how high should the roosting bars be?

 

[flocksalot]

Quote:
How old are the hens? Are they laying yet? If they are young and not laying You can block off the nest boxes for a few days and they will usually move on, but not always to the perch. You can put them onto the perch at night after they have settled in. That will sometimes help. I usually pick out the leader or the bottom of the flock as a starter. Others will usually follow, but not always. We were given 35 pullets this spring that had never seen a perch being raised on the ground with no area to perch. About half of them will perch but the other half sleep in a pile on the floor. They all lay well, but just don't want to perch. In another house they all perch just fine, but in the old ladies house most of them cuddle together rather than perch. In that house they used to always be perched, but one day they decided they were sleeping on the floor. There is no ideal height for bars imo. I usually start them out with one lower and one higher, so they can learn to jump. Once they got it I will change them to all be the same height. In the old ladies house I thought they were just getting to old to jump, so I lowered the perch. Digbats started laying eggs under the perches. Guess it seemed all cozy to them.

 

[BOs and Silkie]

My hens are a little over a year old and are laying

 

[chixbreastrbest]

i am new to chickens as well...i started with 6 chickens and im pretty sure 4 are roosters!....i want as least 5 or 6 chickens
to keep each other warm in the winter! any suggestions on this raising em

 

[wava1vaughn]

Hi from Ga.

WELCOME ABOARD.

 

[flocksalot]

Quote:
Then I would start by placing a few of them up on the perch after they have settled in for the night. Usually top of the flock, but I also use bottom sometimes. Just set them on the perch at night. They will wobble a bit but soon figure it out. The next night they will jump up there themseves usually. Just repeat until they get it. It shouldn't take very long. Every day we put another of the ground girls on the perch. Soon they will all have the perch thing figured out.