my chickens roost on the roof of the coop and dont go inside!

funluvinspirit2004

Hatching
8 Years
Feb 19, 2011
4
0
7
what is up with that? i have two coops, they lay in the one coop more than the other but both buildings do see action. i have 7 hens and one rooster. instead of them going inside they roost on top of the roof! its getting to be winter here and im afraid they will freeze! what can i do? i put a very small heat lamp in one coop and left the other one alone but they still roost on the roof? it freezed rain here the other night and the hens did go inside but bless my Big Red rooster he stayed perched on the roof! what am i doing wrong? i want them to be comft and safe?
 
They'll go in if they need to. Don't worry. Oh, and do a search on heating your coop. Most people recommend against it.
 
Once chickens get used to roosting in a certain spot, they just keep going back.
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Maybe they just like it up there. Chickens can survive all sorts of cold as long as it isn't too windy. I've seen pictures of chickens roosting on garden tables beneath a mound of snow.
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Im afraid the above is correct. You can try to break them of it by putting a cover on the run, but short of that they will have to do it on their own. If you ever see this again with new chickens you get, you must break them early. Once they get used to it...they usually will not change. The bad thing about this is new ones will generally follow the older ones in the flock if they let the new one up there.

Make sure your interior roost bars are up high enough to make them feel secure. Mine are at 3 foot and 5 foot, rooster and two top hens go to the rafters from the 5 foot bar. They are zombied out when roosting and they know it. They want to feel as safe as possible. I guess you can try putting them on lock down also for a week to force them to get used to the inside roosts
 
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