Welcome to BYC!Hi New to the group!I have five Rhode Island reds, Three are five years old And we just added to new birds to the flock in March. The new birds are already laying! All seem pretty happy. For some reason they all decided recently to start roosting outside. We don’t have issues with predators so I’m not too concerned. I’m wondering will they go in their house if the weather gets bad or do I have to go put them in their house?
Can you post a few pics of your coop?
It’s very ventilated and I leave the door to the coop open which allows airflow. I believe it’s about 4 x 6. They have three nesting boxes and a roost inside the coop. Often they all pile up close to each other Either in the nesting boxes or one or two on the roost. I had just added the roost to their run so maybe being that’s new they wanted to try it out. I guess I should remove the outdoor roost to encourage them to go back in their coop at night
Are the nesting boxes external (Still attached but not taking up floor space) or internal? It seems like it may be a bit cramped. @Kiki makes a good point about mites-run a damp paper towel along the underside of the roost(s) at night. If you see red smears, you have a mite problem on your hands.
They are attached but not taking up floor space. We don’t have mite Or other pest problems. I keep the coop clean daily and use DE as a precaution. I do a complete bedding change out once a month, hay. I’ll remove the outdoor roost and see how that goes. They were fine in their coop up until a week ago. My main concern is I don’t want them roosting outside if it’s gonna be pouring down rain not knowing if they would go in the coop.
Is there enough space under the boxes that a chicken can go under and use it? Am I correct in thinking that they are on the inside but off the ground, and not sticking out of the outside? It sounds like things might be getting a bit cramped in the coop. It is probably best to address the root of the problem, which seems to be small space, rather than just using a temporary fix, like closing a door between the coop and the run at night.
The nesting boxes are built off the end of the coop so they hang out off the outside but floor level with coop. They have dividers between the three and a divider from coop to entrance of box so chickens step over divider to get in the nesting box.
