Just finished the new roost.......

[HOLWACHAGOT]

Man, they all look like their breeds should.....who knows which are carrying the blue egg gene?!!?<SHRUGS>

A little gel food coloring on their vents would tell the tale if you really want to know.

brilliant!
Holwachagot

 

[dakotafig]

Since inquiring minds would like to know the greenish eggs are from the light brahma's. My wife even remembers the guy saying something about the colored eggs.

So far I have still needed to move them up on the roosting boards every night. What I can say is I absolutely love the catch board with the stall dry. I'll i need is a 96 cent litter scoop and I clean the poo every few days. I'm not going to go through near the shavings I was before.

I'm probably going to have to move the ramp so it goes more directly up to the roost board. My big headache with that is I will have to move my nesting buckets and I like them right next to the door so my kids don't have to go in to the shed real far. I would love to have nest boxes that are accessible from outside the shed but that is another days project. My wife is complaining in spending to much time in chicken projects as it is.

 

[aart]

I'd attach the ramp to the roost bar itself and then to a piece of 2x4 cleat on the wall as low as possible just above the nests. They should be able to hop up onto the low end of the ramp just fine.

Am amazed at the green laying light brahmas...I wonder what breeds he crossed up, and for how long, to get that to happen.

I'm also surprised that they can squeeze into the 5 gal buckets to lay....my girls didn't like them, too small to turn around.

 

[dakotafig]

Well, I moved the ramp to the side and half of them were roosting on the ramp tonight. I guess we shall see what a few days of this brings now.

I'm planning on cutting the ramp off to match up with the roost bar, just didn't want to do it at the moment in case this drastically didn't work either.

 

[aart]

I'd go out and put them on the roost it self after dark....do that for a few nights until they get used to it.

 

[dakotafig]

Yeah, that's what I've been doing. They didn't get the hang of it before, hopefully they will this time.

 

[PapaChaz]

I wondered what those pellets are that I've seen in a few threads. definitely going to pick some up to use in my coop 'poop board' when I get the new coop built
thanks for saying what they are! of course I guess I could have just asked, LOL

 

[dakotafig]

aart, how high off the floor are your roosts? I have mine about 5 feet or so cause I wanted to get them up by the window.

However I got to thinking my brahma's are a pretty heavy breed and I'm wondering if that height is to high where I might have foot problems later on.

I really like how yours are set up, just not for sure how I could make something like that work in my space.

 

[aart]

aart, how high off the floor are your roosts? I have mine about 5 feet or so cause I wanted to get them up by the window.

However I got to thinking my brahma's are a pretty heavy breed and I'm wondering if that height is to high where I might have foot problems later on.

I really like how yours are set up, just not for sure how I could make something like that work in my space.

My roost boards are about 36" form the floor, the roost itself is 8" above the board.

Had to put up the ramps quick like after I got my adult birds home and realized it was too high for the 6' width of coop.......
......had some crashes as they got used to the new place.

Plus the Brahmas are hefty girls, as were my other birds and not particularly nimble.
Then also added the ramp to the nest perch, and swapped the 2x2 perch for a 2x4 as they are having trouble negotiating the 2x2.

All's good now, most the birds use the ramps most the time, tho some have figured out how to jump/fly down without crashing.

 

[dakotafig]

Do they actually walk down the ramp? Mine fly down, at least from what I have been able to observe.

I should probably move mine lower.......