My chickens just scared the poo out of me!

[Rooneytune]

I went to close up the coop for the night and I checked to make sure everyone was in a "cozy". When I looked in I saw four peacefully chickens snoozing on the roost, but I have eight chickens! the other roost was empty and so was the nesting box! I opened the big door and stuck my head in, sometimes they hid behind the door....nothing! I start to get really scared when I hear a little chicken noise from above me! Four of my chickens were perched an the pole I had put across the rafters of the coop to hang their food and water from! the pole is almost 6 feet off the coop floor! I had no idea they could get up there!!!! Any suggestions for how to keep them off?

 

[shellyga]

no suggestions as they love anything way off the ground it seems
I had a somewhat similar story.. I was missing one chicken and finally found her in the big box of hay WAY up on top of the nest box where we store it.

Shelly

 

[CricketYang]

Clip their wings?

 

[bobbi-j]

Why not just let them be? Eight of my 13 chickens roost in the rafters. I just leave them - they're not hurting anything up there, and I figure if a mink or weasel were to get in there, they'd be safer than the ones on the roost.

 

[AnaD]

Bumblefoot might be a good reason why they shouldn't roost up there. Clipping a wing on each might do the trick.

 

[bobbi-j]

How does roosting up high cause bumblefoot? Just asking because I've never heard of that before.