My 8 chicks are just about killing each other in the coop for roosting space. It is crazy out there! 5 of them are trying to roost on a window cill that only has room for 3 of them, maybe 4 at the most! And the 2 Austrolorps (named Jedi and Vader oddly enough) are fighting to the death for a corner space on one of the roosts that I built them. Gizmo took off and flew up to the top of the wall and finally go comfy on the top 2x4 that is over 5 feet off the floor all by herself. If she falls... she is going to knock the girls off of the window cill... who will flap around and knock off the the 3 who couldn't fit on the cill.... And all Im going to find in the morning is a pile of chicken parts!!!! There are 2 perfectly nice roosts with more than enough room for everyone but no they have to roost on the top of walls and the window cills. They will be 6 weeks old on Monday, how long does this pecking order thing take? I'm not sure they are all going to survive it. And I certainly must avoid the drama that comes at dusk in the coop! Yikes!
Pecking order is an ever-changing thing. It settles down for a while and then changes again. As far as roosting goes, they'll figure it out eventually. They want to be at the very highest point of any structure when they roost, so that's why they're settling on 2x4s above the roosts. Just give them time and they'll figure it out, I promise!
I am not looking forward to putting my girls out all in the coop together and the ,but it will sure be nice to have my house back. I hoping that's my this Tuesday I will be done with the coop and the weather will be warm enough to put them out.
Just a word of advise, if you "lose" one, look UP. I went out when we had first got chickens and my son's pullet was missing. We searched everywhere for her and couldn't find her. I laid awake most of the night trying to think of how I was going to explain to him that his chicken was gone. I went up in the morning to let the chickens out, and she came strolling out. The next night for the headcount, couldn't find her again. Looked all around and then I looked up and she was roosting on the header above the window. In my defense, she's a red chicken on wood at night, kinda hard to see.