Is my roost okay or did I screw up?

[serenityNH]

Hello!

I have almost finished the inside of the coop, but now I am questioning myself. I'm not sure if my roost is okay or not? I'm now thinking it's too long and too high??

I put a 2x4 up for the roost like suggested and made it 12 feet long across the whole length of my coop. Is this okay to have one long roost like that?

My nesting boxes are stacked and are 3 1/2 feet high, so I made the roost a few inches higher then that (almost 4 ft high), I figured that it was okay to have it that high since they had 7 feet in front of them to fly down? But now after reading other posts I'm questioning myself.

Still deciding whether or not to put dropping boards under the roost?

Do you think this setup is okay for heavy breed chickens or should I re-do what I've done? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. It was a lot of work to secure that roost but if I have to take it down so be it.

BTW my chicks are coming in 5 days, I'm so excited!!!! It's been a long wait, I ordered them 77 days ago.......

Thanks,
Angie

 

[Ms.Frizzle]

Can you post a picture? The only thing that comes to mind is that it might be hard to clean under.

 

[serenityNH]

I'll go take a pic now... let's see if I can figure out how to upload!

 

[serenityNH]

Okay, here are some pictures let's see if I can do this!
Oh, in case this helps the roost is 15" away from the wall, not sure if you can tell in the pictures?

 

[Yay Chicks!]

You may want to put a ramp up to the roost. It looks like you have plenty of room to do that. It might be just fine as it, but I notice that my Buff Orp and BR really "thunk" down when they leave their roost.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

You will be making them susceptible to bumblefoot unless you give them a ramp or hopping-stones (lol!) up to the roost with those heavy breeds. Been there, done that.

Beautiful roost! Perfect, in my opinion.

A droppings board will save you a lot of money in pine shavings.

Or you can do as I do, and just say the floor is toast anyways- I use the floor as a droppings board, sprinkle sweet PDZ or DE everywhere (very dusty), and scrape everyday. It isn't possible to do this in freezing weather, however, as the poo sticks to the floor.

No, just looked at your floor. It is so pretty and new looking. I recommend pine shavings and a droppings board.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Yay Chicks! :

You may want to put a ramp up to the roost. It looks like you have plenty of room to do that. It might be just fine as it, but I notice that my Buff Orp and BR really "thunk" down when they leave their roost.

Thank you Yay Chicks for saying that- I really doubt I would have thought to say what I did in my post if you hadn't.

 

[Sorin]

Roost looks great, but yeah, definitely a ramp or "stepping stools" .

 

[goldtopper]

That's a really long roost, but if you've got two dozen chickens, it's great. If you have a dozen or less, I'd free up the space. More room for you to move is always a good thing. And yes, do a dropping board, it makes life so much easier. I built another shelf under my roost and laid boot trays on it. They slide right off the the poo just scrapes right into the compost.
Nice coop btw!

 

[vnploveschickens]

I would definately put a droppings board under roost. We didn't have one at first, but when we expanded our coop, we put one in.
I can't tell you how much easier it is to clean up. And how much you save pine shavings.

Otherwise, looks good. Like the others say, put in a ramp or 'step' up. It does help.