Ladder too slippery -- ideas?

[Lucy4]

My 4 1/2 week old chickens are in their completed coop -- yay! Only problem so far is the ladder from the coop to the run. (It's a playhouse-style coop/run.) My husband made the rungs for adult-sized chicken feet. Which isn't a problem getting down to the run, but they can't back up into the coop. The pressure-treated wood is too slick and they slide. Any ideas? Would sandpapering work? My husband's gone all week and I'm not handy enough to build another one. Thanks in advance.

 

[Hillbilly Rooster]

You could always find some scrap pieces of wood and screw them down in between the rungs. So that they are closer together?

 

[Judy]

I think sandpaper would injure their feet.

Well, you could get some of that soft rubbery feeling nonskid shelf liner and staple it on. Or, scraps of indoor-outdoor carpet would work, I think. Even fabric scraps, esp. something like polarfleece or felt, though of course that wouldn't last long before it got nasty. Nothing too hard or sharp -- their feet are pretty tender.

 

[zatsdeb]

maybe you can find a way to rough it up, maybe rough sandpaper? or maybe you can find another piece of wood to put over top of that one that is rougher??
if it were me, I would go out in my Husbands garage, get his screw jar, cordless drill w/screwdriver attatchment, and cut a few little pieces of wood and put in between the ones your husband made, and screw them in.all you need it little pieces, little scrap pieces would work, he can later unscrew them and fix them if he wants to when he gets home.

 

[Lucy4]

Yeah, I can screw in rungs by myself. But we don't have any more scrap wood lying around, and I don't trust myself with the saw. So more rungs will have to wait til he gets back.

The shelf liner or carpet is a good idea for the meantime. Oh, and Dawn -- I meant sandpapering the wood, not putting sandpaper on the ladder. Maybe I'll try the sanding and if that doesn't cut it, staple liner on it.

Thanks for the ideas, everyone!

 

[Timbercrete]

Carpet

 

[silkiechicken]

For now I'd just tie on a lengh of fabric, carpet or even wire. I would avoid roughing up the wood or putting holes it it as that would add to the possibly of increasing pores from which it can start to rot or get things stuck in it.

 

[crazyhen]

Go to the lowes or home Depo and buy some step tape stripping. Its narrow but successive strips work really nice. I had it first to prevent slipping on my steps edges. It worked great for the chicken ladder too. Hope this helps Jean

 

[DarkWolf]

Old pillow case tied on top of it.

A little twine and you'll be fine..

 

[GardeNerd]

The ladder we used for our baby chicks when they were first moved into the coop was a scrap piece of wood with popcicle or craft sticks for traction glued horizontally with wood glue. It was very easy and my 8 year old daughter made it.

If you go to my page about our tractor you can sort of see it in the background on the last photo.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=20741-recycled-tractor