Is my perch to big?

[Dar]

we had old broom sticks secured on the end of cinder blocks as a perch and when my girls were young they used to use it as a limbo bar and as they got older they hopped on it and then off again...

well low and behold we went into the coop late in the evening and found all the girls perched atop a 4' high wall but the problem was that this was only about 1/2 wide...so this morning I had DH "top" the wall with a piece of 2X10 to give thier lil feet something more stable to stand on at night..I know I would not want to stand on 1/2" ledge all night...so my question is did i break comething that was not broken by putting the top on the wall?

(there is nothing on the other side of this wall the coop was to long in my opnion so when the girls were big enough to go outside we seperated the shed and now we use the back section for off season storage of garden rakes snow shovels)

my girls are a mixed breed I am new to chickens so i just started off with a laying varity from my local hatchery

 

[banter]

Mine fly up to huge beams in our ancient barn and do fine.

 

[DouglasPeeps]

Chickens are always going to perch or roost as high as they can. It's a chicken thing. So, your roosts should be high. My chickens all fight for the top roost. Some of them even go in much earlier than the others in the evening to secure their spot on the "top row". I would recommend using 2X4's with the wide side (4 inch) up for them to roost on. This is important during the winter time so they can cover their feet with their breast to keep them from freezing.

Here is a picture of my roosts.

 

[LynneP]

Our roost is made from 3 pieces of 2x4 on the same level, just slightly higher than our platforms. A lot of people find this size of board satisfactory because chickens like to tuck their feet well under their 'petticoat' feathers when chilly and the width provides balance. If you choose to put the roost pieces on the same level you can avoid some dominance squabbles from the most dominant hens...

 

[ridgefire]

I used 2x4's on the flat and 1 2x6 on the flat, they seem to prefer the the 2x6.