My chickens not on roost at night

[JessChickengirl06]

I’m thinking the coop is undersized. Rule of thumb is 4 sqft per bird in coop. 10 in run. Also, one sqft of ventilation per bird.
I’m betting they are staying close to the pop door because the air moves through it and isn’t hot and stuffy. After it cools down, it’s dark and they aren’t able to go elsewhere.

Yeah we were Afraid they would out grow it before we could move and have a bigger one. We were to move twice now and our new home build is taking way longer to begin and come along due to covid and stuff.
This was the only size our landlord would allow us. But they entered it sooo little and still slept at doorway.

how can we make it work til we move 3-4 months still ?!?

 

[MarkJr]

Yeah we were Afraid they would out grow it before we could move and have a bigger one. We were to move twice now and our new home build is taking way longer to begin and come along due to covid and stuff.
This was the only size our landlord would allow us. But they entered it sooo little and still slept at doorway.

how can we make it work til we move 3-4 months still ?!?

Have you tried physically putting them on the roost each night (I’m a dummy and didn’t ask right away). If they aren’t squabbling, they should be ok for a bit.
Toward roosting time jump in the coop and shut the door. Is it hot and stuffy??? Could you cut a couple holes up high and cover with hardware cloth to help if it is stuffy?

Maybe placing them on the roost and showing them it’s where they’re supposed to be will do the trick.
Investigate your ventilation.

That will be a fine start.

 

[JessChickengirl06]

Have you tried physically putting them on the roost each night (I’m a dummy and didn’t ask right away). If they aren’t squabbling, they should be ok for a bit.
Toward roosting time jump in the coop and shut the door. Is it hot and stuffy??? Could you cut a couple holes up high and cover with hardware cloth to help if it is stuffy?

Maybe placing them on the roost and showing them it’s where they’re supposed to be will do the trick.
Investigate your ventilation.

That will be a fine start.

Okay thank you! Yeah it’s so odd because they all roost during the day sometimes on nice days looking out the window.

they have all been together since 2-3 days old and it’s so funny because they love being close together. Napping together close and sleeping at night close lol.
I will try that!

 

[Stepnout]

It’s very hard to tell from the pictures but I‘m wondering how much head room they have to jump up on the roost bar, can they jump up without hitting the roof? Also wondering what the diameter of the bar is?
One thing I did early on was take a 2 by 4 stand it on its edge and nail/screw 2 legs on the bottom, set this on the floor and see if they roost on it. That will keep them from sleeping in their poop.

 

[JessChickengirl06]

It’s very hard to tell from the pictures but I‘m wondering how much head room they have to jump up on the roost bar, can they jump up without hitting the roof? Also wondering what the diameter of the bar is?
One thing I did early on was take a 2 by 4 stand it on its edge and nail/screw 2 legs on the bottom, set this on the floor and see if they roost on it. That will keep them from sleeping in their poop.

They roost on it during day or if raining. Yeah they have perfect view out window and lots of head room. All 6 fit but normally 4-5 stay on during rain and 1-2 sit on top of nesting boxes were vent window is

 

[azure_]

This was already suggested, but I'm gonna suggest it again. Every year some of my chicks like to sleep on the door (this year three did) everyone else was roosting on the roost or elsewhere in side the coop. Every night we would put the three chicks on the bar close the run door lock the human door and eventually ( 3 ish weeks) they will roost. For ventilation in my coop I have some right by the roost and some on the other side of the coop.

 

[aart]

That's a head scratcher.
That they are on the roost during the day but not at night.

 

[azure_]

Is there anything scary about the roost?

 

[cmom]

Is your roost a 2x4 or dowel? Some people would say my coops are too small for the amount of birds I have but they all have plenty of roost space so no one is crowded, with roost space left over. The birds like to crowd together. I have very large pens and most of the time they are outside except when they go in to roost in the evenings. I do have night lights in all of my coops. Maybe that helps, I don't know but everyone goes in at night onto the roosts. Good luck...