I'm afraid they are going to hurt themselves

[newchick13]

love the poo slide!

 

[onthespot]

Chickens will roost as high as you let them. They don't think about coming down the next morning. They think about getting as high as possible at night to be safe.

None of my roosts are higher than three feet tall. Most are more like eighteen inches. Larger breeds can injure their feet, wings, breastbones and evven break their necks comign down from eight feet high roosts. Bumblefoot, as someone else said, can can be caused by repeated bruising on the bottoms of the feet from hitting a hard surface every time they come down from a perch. Since the damage is from the inside bones and inside pad of the feet, you can't even tell by looking at your birds feet every day, until it is too late. By the time the sole of their feet goes necrotic, there is often already bone damage to the end of the tarsal bones, the cartilage is shot, and infection has set in and they don't make it. Bubmlefoot surgery doesn't help. Epsom salts won't help. Posting on here won't help. Neo-Tricide won't help. Better to just remove a few roost bars now, than have heartache later. Sorry for such a downer post. My friend had Jersey Giants and had to learn the hard way. Just sharing my experience with her, trying to save her best birds after an "I told you so." discussion about perches. Hers were built for her by a Hispanic man that raised game birds. They were fine for his breed. I told her they were not fine for larger, heavier breeds, but she left them up. Lost nearly half her flock to bumblefoot before she lowered her perches and put down shavings. Some people have to learn the hard way I guess.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Quote:
Thanks. I'd say that 95% of the nightly poop ends up in the bin at the bottom and it is a simple and quick procedure to grab the bin and dump it into the compost bin every few days.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Quote:
Don't be sorry. That is exactly the type of information I come on this forum to learn. How high would you think it would be safe to put the roosts for these breeds? I'll go out and measure later but I'm guessing my top roost is between 4 and 4.5 feet from the floor.

 

[onthespot]

If it was me, and I had those breeds, I'd just give them one perch level. about 18" off the floor. I would also make the shavnigs about three or four inches deep under where they jump down. The thin layer of shavings you have in your pic is great for keeping poop from sticking to the floor, but it does almost nothing to cushion their feet when they land.

 

[teach1rusl]

I thought you were going to say that they were hopping onto the slide and SLIDING down, and then getting caught in the roost bars when attempting to get off the slide...lol.

Yeah...I use a chicken ladder. But my big butted buff orp refuses to use it coming down. I was just telling DH yesterday that I'm gonna' have to lower my roosts so that she doesn't hurt herself. I have LOTS of bedding in there, but as you said, it generally gets scooted away from the landing area.

 

[welasharon]

Mine are landing on sand but I am afraid they are going to land head first into the side of the pen. I will be moving mine today....put it off long enough and have been lucky. I have a cuckoo marans and a barred rock that are thunder chicks! THanks for the push!
sharon

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Quote:
OK, I'm adding that to the coop winterization list that I'm working through this weekend.

Thanks for the tips everyone. I thought I was doing my chickens a favor by giving them high roosts, but I'm glad I got your good advice before something bad happened.

Fortunately it is a beautiful autumn day here in the Colorado mountains so spending time outdoors won't be a problem.