I Built You a Roost - USE IT! (Should I worry?)

[gardendufus]

I have 6 (soon to be 10) LF birds. My roost is appx 8' long which is way more than I need. I personally favor the 1 roost method for just a few birds as I think it minimizes fights over who gets the higher spot. You should have plenty of room in your space to place a roost either across the 9' width, or catty corner across one of the corners. Which might work well if you enlarge your flock with 2 catty corner roosts. My roosts are appx 3 - 3 1/2 tall (I have nothing taller in my henhouse) because I wanted a height that would make it easier for me to grab them off the roost at night if I needed to get a bird for some reason. I definitely didn't want to be trying to grab a bird off of a 6' high roost. They are perfectly happy with that height and I didn't offer them any choices.

I asked about coop size, cuz even 3 1/2 feet wouldn't have been an option in one of the smaller backyard coops I have seen. Some of those, I bet, are 6" or even as little as 3" off the coop floor.

 

[zhockeymom]

So glad I found this thread! My chickens had started sleeping in their nesting boxes. I don't want poopy eggs so I blocked off the boxes for now. They are so out of sorts. Honestly - they act like they don't know what a roosting bar is!?! And they were all huddled in the corner tonight all discombobulated. I imagine they will adjust on their own, but it makes me feel bad. I never should have let them sleep in the nesting boxes to begin with...

 

[Time-Out]

It took me three days of putting the chickens on the roost for them to get the idea. It wasn't too much hassle as I like to go out and check on them anyway.

For the second question, I have a reconverted horse stable too. This is what we did:


You probably can't see very well in that shot, but there is about a 9' roost going across the corner with a poop board underneath. This is where they roost at night. The ladder roost seems to be their daytime roost. They'll sit on it and preen. It folds up out of the way for cleaning.
That stable is 10' x 12'