Official BYC Poll: What Do You Do To Make Your Chicks/Pullets Roost?

[humblehillsfarm]

When I brood by own chicks, I provide a perch that is about 4" off the ground after a few days and they usually start using it right away, but they sleep under the brooder plate. When mama hens raise chicks, she usually starts perching on the roost around 4-6 weeks and chicks have to figure out how to roost with her.

 

[BDutch]

Is "never had the option to roost young and now they don't give a damn" an option? LOL Mine were 5ish months old when I got them had have shown ZERO interest in roosting. They don't even get up on things during the day. They just keep both feet on the ground. (They are roughly 8-9 months old now.)

They might have been raised without roosts. Some breeds , like Silkies and Cochins are more willing to nest overnight. What breed do you have?

You can try to teach them. Hold a snack they can get if they jump up the roost.
Give them an easy and comfy roost (not a round stick or construction wood with sharp edges). After practicing, put them on the roost inside the coop early night. After a few weeks they might roost by itself.

 

[BDutch]

I give my chicks opportunity to roost. The chicks all want to roost overnight from 6-7 weeks old. But flock dynamics can do strange things.

A few years ago I had a young pullet that roosted with her momma and two brothers. But after her brothers moved on to a new owner. She got bullied and wasn’t allowed to roost with the adults anymore.

She started to roost in another part of the coop. But she got pestered there too. The nestbox was the only safe place for her. (Edited: I tried to let her sleep with the others by putting her on the roost after it got dark. But it didn’t work out, she only got more traumatised, and decided to let her make her own choises).
She slept in a nestbox until after her first winter.

Janice the pullet who got bullied after her siblings left.

Last year she started to roost again in the part of coop near the nest-boxes and since this autumn (after the big boss vanished) she finally sleeps with the flock and is integrated as a lower flock member.

Now something similar is happening. The broodies with their 3 chicks want to roost with the flock.

practicing during the day

The chicks are 8 weeks now. I’ve seen them try to roost for the night a few times last weeks. But they get bullied untill they give up and leave towards the small coop with the nestboxes. There they cuddle up again and they don’t want to use the roosts in the small coop. So now I’m brooding on a plan to get them to roost for hygienic reasons.

 

[Padfoot22]

I put a handmade roost in the brooder for them just a few inches off the floor. Then in the interim large dog cage (at 4-8 weeks old) prior to going into the coop they had two roosts on either side but they would all cram into one to sleep at night. I made a swing roost in the split run before they went into the coop with my adult chickens but they only did that a few nights before they found a higher roost on top of the vinyl fencing between the run. So by the time they got into the coop…. Roosting was well established.

 

[Pippin quail]

My chicks are about 4 weeks old (or is it 5 now?!) Time flies when you don't have a chicken coop ready for the chicks yet! Anyway, they have had small roosting bars in their brooder since a few days and after they got their wing feathers they all wanted to be up on the sides of the brooder the second it was open. They are now in a temporary chicken tractor and they take turns roosting on a support beam during the day. At night they all still like to cuddle together on the ground, but I'm sure they'll figure it out on their own once they're in the permanent coop with roosting bars available for everyone.

 

[Cattle dog Mom]

They might have been raised without roosts. Some breeds , like Silkies and Cochins are more willing to nest overnight. What breed do you have?

You can try to teach them. Hold a snack they can get if they jump up the roost.
Give them an easy and comfy roost (not a round stick or construction wood with sharp edges). After practicing, put them on the roost inside the coop early night. After a few weeks they might roost by itself.

They are Mottled Javas that are wilder than March hares. They can sleep on the floor as far as I'm concerned. They have every chance to roost on various things since I'm had them, and still have ZERO interest. I even put a "roost" board down closer to ground level and they either walking under it like they were doing the limbo, or jumped over it.