Is it normal for pullets to not roost?

[Dogfish]

I actually started putting my birds up in the roost area around 7 weeks of age. After a week of me putting them up there in the loft, they settled in to hanging out on the roosts on their own.

 

[VA Lady]

Well at least this sounds like it's pretty typical!

 

[CindyG]

I have 5 4/5 wk olds in a smaller cage in the big coop with a dozen 8 week olds. The heat lamp is on at night, over the small ones cage and the big ones all cuddle together around it. Funny, because, in the small cage, the little ones like to get up on the branch and roost. Chickens are funny.

 

[briteday]

Just be sure that they are not getting in the habit of sleeping in nest boxes. The first year we had chickens I got point of lay pullets from a guy who kept them in a dog run without any roosts. Those girls slept in the nest boxes and could not be broken of the habit. I finally re-homed them after 18 months of dirty eggs because of pooping in the nest boxes overnight. Now, each Spring when I let the new girls move into the hen house from the brooder I make sure that everyone is on the roost when I close the doors at night. Otherwise I PUT them on the roost and put something evil (like a metal pie pan on edge) in the nest boxes until early morning. If they jump into a nest at night it makes noise and they seem to go back to the roost. I also have little roosts for the rubbermaid brooder and later the brooder/grow out coop. My husband took some woods blocks and put a 2 x 2 bar across them. I usually put them in the rubbermaid brooder when the chicks are about 10 days old. And then we add a few more of these baby roosts to the grow out coop when they move outside. So most of the girls are already used to the baby roosts by the time they move to the big girl coop. But some of them still have issues with "jumping up" to the big girl roosts which are about 3' off the floor. Even our silkies roost most of the time, on their own.

 

[VA Lady]

Last night went better - they were all up in the roost area to sleep (I'm pretty sure they were roosting & not in the nest boxes but that's good info so I'll keep an eye out for that). Early on I heard something over the monitor that I'm hoping was the raccoon getting a good zap from the fence. Didn't seem to bother the girls "upstairs". I think the new bird, Rosie, is a good influence. Maybe it helped that she was around grown birds and picked up some valuable lessons... Also, might need to start a new thread about this but I'm curious if wild turkeys can be any kind of a problem with chickens? Have been hearing them close by and wasn't sure if they would try to bother the girls when they're out.