How do I know if they are roosting??

[rockwoodchicken]

Hi All,
My girls are happy in their coop but they don't seem to be going up to their roost. They are 8 weeks old. At 2 weeks i made them a mini roost for in their brooder and they would go on it for little bits at of time at first and then more and more to the point where they were sleeping on it.
Now that they are outside there is no way for me to know if they are on the roost. To see in our coop you have to open the run door and go up to the coop and by that time they are all jumping around and chittering. .


When it gets dark out the girls go in the coop but they huddle in a corner all together. I have tried to leave the doors of the coop open so that they wouldn't huddle against it but they just go to the back corner and huddle (I have not put in a nesting box because I read to wait until they were closer to laying so that they didn't sleep in it.)

They do go on the roost during the day. I have left both coop doors open and I have seen them on it many times but shouldn't they be going to the roost at night when they go in and not huddling in the corner??

thanks

lisa

 

[chfite]

I had a small flock of 5 that slept on the floor in a pile until about 16 weeks. They appeared to be happy and healthy, they just did not roost for a long time.

Chris

 

[Ridgerunner]

My brooder raised chicks normally start roosting overnight at around 10 to 12 weeks. I’ve had some batches start at 5 weeks and some that went a lot longer but 10 to 12 is an average. It really is an individual thing with each separate batch, even in the same conditions. One will start to do it and usually the others follow within a couple of days. Do you have that one adventurist chick to start them off?

They will perch on the roosts during the day but not sleep there at night. They are quite happy piled on the floor until they decide to move up. I don’t worry about it.

 

[Chickmagnet36]

At 8 weeks, they are still young and learning. They will eventually get the swing of things, mine took a few days before they moved off the floor up to the roosts. Don't worry, just give them some time...You are wise to wait on introducing the nest boxes until they get closer to POL (point of lay). Good luck.