My chickens won't roost on their roost!!

[RJSchaefer]

I have 17 7-week old "Browns" and 6 9-10 week old black sex-links. I made them a nice roost. Plenty of space. The first two days, they were all over it. Now, they'll roost on anything else.

• The [covered] hay bin
• The rabbit hutch
• The top of the rabbit pen
• The garbage can.
• The bin that I store extra supplies in.

Heck, I've even caught them ALL fighting over one nesting box. It's not cold in there, they aren't huddling. What gives?

 

[Clackclack]

Perhaps the roost... just kidding. Show us a picture of your roost!

 

[Studio2770]

Our's were kinda scared, so we put them on the roosts ourselves. They are different heights, so we made sure there was one on each roost, they saw eachother on the roosts and got comfortable with jumping from roost to roost.

 

[RJSchaefer]

Here is the roost. Throughout the day, I'll find many of them sitting on it. Or, rather, playing on it. All my Browns will be up in a little line, just waiting for me to come in to say hello.

Then, when I go out to do my final night check at 10 or 11, they'll be anywhere but there!

 

[DaveK88]

Mine slept on the floor for the longest time. It took a few months before they started to use the roost. Give them some time they will eventually start to sleep on it.

 

[blondiebee181]

I started teaching my hens to roost when they were about 3 weeks old. I put a small dowel in their brooder. They were pretty good when I finally put them out in the coop, but I did block off the nest boxes so they wouldn't sleep in them...now they are all great except I have one that tries to sleep on the roof

 

[blondiebee181]

Oh the other thing I was going to say is...I use rounded dowels for mine....I know people that use 2X4s with the flat side up....could it be that the roosts aren't comfortable for their feet? Just an idea.