How much higher than the nests does the roost need to be?

[gale65]

Since our coop has pretty high nests (it was a prebuilt one) I want to make sure the roost is high enough, but not so high they're hitting their heads. The coop is pretty small (see it here) so there isn't a lot of flexibility here. How much head clearance do heavy layers need? Will they need a ramp to the roost and/or nest boxes? The walls are about 4' high if that helps to visualize how far off the floor they are.

 

[ChixWrangler]

Lovely little coop. Too bad the nesting boxes aren't a bit lower but oh well. I think 18" of head room would be as little as I would give, any less and the birds won't have much room to stretch their wings, which mine love to do.

 

[gale65]

hm I won't be able to give 18" in this coop, I don't think. I'll have to think about this. I don't know if there's any practical way to lower the nests. They're built into the sides. I'll see what dh thinks.

 

[ChixWrangler]

Here is an idea for you and your DH to think about:

Take the existing nesting boxes off their current mount and remount them to the other side of the coop at a lower point then create a new vent/window to fill in the hole left where the nesting boxes are now.

Just a thought.......

 

[patandchickens]

It's not clear to me that there would be any difficulty in lowering the nestboxes. Just detach them, cut out an appropriate size hole below where they are now, install them there, and fill in the space above (where they came from) with plexiglass or whatever you want.

You don't absolutely HAVE to have them obviously-lower than the roost, but it tends to make life easier on you because of gettin' less of the natural perversity of chickens that way.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[emptynester]

You have a couple of options really. Both are the same idea, just different methods.
1- close off the nest boxes and build roost in front of them, place new boxes inside on top of the old roost.

2- close off the nest boxes and build roost in front of them. have husband move nest boxes to opposite wall and just cut new holes in wall.


Either way takes minimal carpentry skill and is easily done

Or what Patandchickens says too ! LOL

 

[bryan99705]

I think that as long as the roosts are as high or higher than the nests, you should have happy birds