Hi Chicken people! My small chicken house has gone through a recent reconfig and I'm wondering if I need to put ladders back in there or just trust them to fly and jump and not get hurt.... Initially I had ladders going from the 2nd story to the 3rd. They would all climb both ladders to the 3rd and cram together in a chicken pile (literally they were stepping and laying on each other on a very short roost that was to close to the closed door (open during the day, closed at night-hopefully the pics show what I'm talking about). Due to them all growing and getting bigger (they are 10 and 14weeks now), this looked more and more out of control at bed time and I watched a few take spills off of the roost. So I built in new "nesting shelves" with one longer and lower roost and no ladders (yet). Last night they all jumped/flew up from the 2nd story roost to the top shelf and roosted up there. This morning as usual all were out in the run waiting for me to let them out for the day (into the kennel). Am I to assume they can jump down from there just fine? Obviously they can get up there just fine but I dont know if I should add the ladders back for getting down. It's obviously a very small house but I think just fine for 6 since truly they have 4 spaces in all (the house, the run, the kennel, the whole fenced in 1 acre). Any suggestions, comments appreciated, this site(wealth of knowledge) is truly a chicken life saver! Very grateful!!! -Oh that's my sweet Newfie in one pic - watching over the chickens at night, it's cute, she is truly a gentle giant... Kris
