Not roosting

[City Farmer Jim]

I seem to have new(to us) issue with roosting. We had a small coop 4x8 with a poor design for roosting, NOW we have an 8x10 with nearly 2 linear feet for each of our 8 hens to roost on..here's the issue we have 1 bird that does not roost that I can tell...by that statement i mean when everyone goes into the coop for the night 7 of the hens go right to the roost but 1 doesn't...there's plenty of open space for her and breed sister normally has an empty spot next to her. I will add that in the small coop she started doing the same thing about 3 weeks before we moved them to the new location. Any thoughts? Oh and they have been in the new coop for 14 days now.

 

[aart]

Where is she sleeping?
Might have to put her on roost after dark(well after dark).

Wanted to see your new coop, but......your build thread needs some updates ??
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/new-coop-for-snowflake-farm.1450496/

 

[3KillerBs]

I have 2 hens who don't sleep on the roost.

Dumpling, the Light Brahma, may not be able to get up there with limited wing space in the Little Monitor Coop -- she doesn't fly well because of being so heavy. Popcorn, the SLW, *could* go up if she wanted to. She will go up on the roost to look out the monitor sometimes if I'm late coming out to open up. But she sleeps on the floor cuddled up with Dumpling.

I don't know what will happen when I move everyone to the Chicken Palace after it's finished.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Any thoughts?

My first thought is why does it matter? What difference does it make? As long as mine are sleeping somewhere predator safe and not sleeping in the nests I don't care where they choose to sleep. I don't see the harm.

It sounds like she can get up there if she wants to. So why isn't she? She doesn't want to. Why doesn't she want to? I don't know.

You can probably train her to sleep on the roosts if you want to. Put her up on the roost every night after dark until she gets the message.

 

[City Farmer Jim]

I will apologize for not posting more of the new coop, there are a myriad of reasons the two biggest are...this coop project was way more work than I could have imagined and secondly we had monsoon rains for 3.5 weeks which REALLY slowed progress and that coupled with the skyrocket in lumber prices. I had a self imposed completion date of May 1...I missed it by 30 days. To make up for the lack of NEW Coop info and picks the week of 7-4-21. It will be a lengthy diatribe and TO MANY PICTURES.

 

[alwaystj9]

Both the monsoon rains and overpriced lumber have me in a bind, also!
I am scrambling to shore up parts of old coops until I can get my rebuild going again.
Looking forward to your update!

 

[3KillerBs]

I will apologize for not posting more of the new coop, there are a myriad of reasons the two biggest are...this coop project was way more work than I could have imagined and secondly we had monsoon rains for 3.5 weeks which REALLY slowed progress and that coupled with the skyrocket in lumber prices. I had a self imposed completion date of May 1...I missed it by 30 days. To make up for the lack of NEW Coop info and picks the week of 7-4-21. It will be a lengthy diatribe and TO MANY PICTURES.

We're in the same boat with the Chicken Palace.

 

[City Farmer Jim]

Well I went into the coop last night.. not late 9:30...picked up the non roosting bird and put her on the roost..she stayed for at least 5 minutes as I stayed and watched..BUT I went inside to wait and see if she was going to stay the night and....you guessed it fell asleep and couldn't muster the gumption to go back and check on her. I will try again tonight.

 

[aart]

you guessed it fell asleep and couldn't muster the gumption to go back and check on her.

BTDT!
This time of year, exam times are way past my bedtime.

 

[City Farmer Jim]

The second check will have to wait until the weekend....I put her on the roost at 10 last night and....wait for it...I fell asleep again so not sure if she stayed or not. She's #7 in our 8 bird flock and will be mindful of the exactly where I put her...more NON ROOSTING. It seems that #7 and 8 are not roosting as they should...seems to be a pecking order THANG. If I put her to close to #2, #2 takes cheap shots at her and the same thing happened to #8 last night. This weekend I am going to set an alarm and move who ever is on the floor and see what happens.