I’m pulling my hair out!🤪

[Redbud55]

I brooded 30 chicks entirely in their coop. I call my coop, Coop Cost A Plenty! Anyway...I can’t get them to sleep on the perches. I’ve put food up there and on the ramp. They are only three feet above the floor...they fly up, eat the food, then fly down. They sleep in a big pile on the floor! Any ideas? They are 8 was.old now.

 

[HappyClucker7]

At night, when it gets dark, lift them up onto the roosts. Chickens can't see at night, so they won't jump back down. After doing this for a while, they'll start going up on their own.

 

[Redbud55]

At night, when it gets dark, lift them up onto the roosts. Chickens can't see at night, so they won't jump back down. After doing this for a while, they'll start going up on their own.

Thanks. I thought of that, but there are so many of them, I thought I’d see if anyone had any other ideas. Guess I’m going to have to do it.

 

[KingD]

At night, when it gets dark, lift them up onto the roosts. Chickens can't see at night, so they won't jump back down. After doing this for a while, they'll start going up on their own.

Yes that's the way most people do it. Works very well!
How many hens do you have @Redbud55 ? I had 70 at one stage and i had to do it. Only takes a few nights and they'll do it on their own after that.
Good luck.

 

[Ridgerunner]

My brooder-raised chickens typically do not start roosting in my grow-out coop at night until they are around 10 to 12 weeks old. There are no adults around, that makes a difference. I've had some start just after five weeks and some take longer than 12, but 10 to 12 is a typical average. I personally see no reason to micromanage my chickens, but let them be chickens as much as I can. Until they are ready to roost, they typically spend the night in a group on the coop floor, just like they would with a broody hen before she took them to the roosts. I've had a broody hen take her chicks to the roost as young as two weeks, though most wait a few weeks longer. They may play on the roosts during the day so they can get up there but they just don't want to sleep up there at night until thy are ready.

If you feel you want to get them roosting you don't need to teach each and every one. Select a few that you can recognize, assuming you can, and put them on the roosts each night after dark. You don't have to get the same handful each night but it may go a bit quicker if you can. Once one starts roosting on the roosts at night the others usually soon follow. They learn from each other.

 

[Isadora]

When my chickens were just a couple weeks old, we put roosts a few inches off the floor in their brooder. It was very easy for them to get up onto and very natural, as chickens roost as a natural behavior. They immediately understood what the higher roost was for when I moved them out to their coop in the yard. Maybe you could try just lowering the roosts temporarily? I'm not sure how feasible that is with your setup.