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

[aart]

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.......

Yes, they walk down.....sometimes very slowly, like a big elephant taking it's time.
The younger birds that aren't as hefty yet, still fly/jump down.

Your cleats may be too far apart...mine are about 6 inches apart, they don't like sliding on their feet much.

 

[dakotafig]

The cleats on mine are about 8 inches apart. How thick is your cleat boards?

What if I had some boards sticking out of the wall like a ladder roost where they could hop down, or up for that matter I guess. If I had a 12" rise and a 12" run between them? They would only need to be a foot wide.

Hopefully my description makes sense I'm not always the best at descriptions. If nothing else it gives them two options to get up and down.

 

[aart]

My cleats are about a 1/2" thick.

Maybe add cleats between each of the existing ones.
Sprinkle some scratch on the ramp so they get used to navigating it?

I really wouldn't worry too much about them flying down, looks like they have room to spread their wings to soften their landing.

 

[dakotafig]

aart, thanks for all your input. I probably will put more cleats in. They are getting the hang of it but my banty still wants to sleep in a nest bucket.

Their coop is 8x8 so they probably have 6 feet of length to fly off. I watched them this morning and they do fly off.

 

[dakotafig]

Not to drag an old post up but I thought I would post an update for everyone. I experimented with a few things and I found that my biggest issue was the distance between the catch tray and the roost board.

I only had about 6 inches between them before and that probably wasn't enough for them to want to go higher. I dropped the catch tray to 14 inches below the roost board and instantly they never roosted on the tray anymore, always in the board.

Hopefully that will help someone else if the want to build the same thing.

 

[aart]

Not to drag an old post up but I thought I would post an update for everyone. I experimented with a few things and I found that my biggest issue was the distance between the catch tray and the roost board.

I only had about 6 inches between them before and that probably wasn't enough for them to want to go higher. I dropped the catch tray to 14 inches below the roost board and instantly they never roosted on the tray anymore, always in the board.

Hopefully that will help someone else if the want to build the same thing.

Hmm, that's interesting, makes sense. Now to see if all the night poops hit the board or 'overshoot' off the edge of board.
Might be why some of mine like to roost on the board(which I don't think is a problem anyway).

ETA: never too late to update one of your threads with more info for the future ;-)