Oh no! Is she gonna hurt herself?

[BarkerChickens]

One of my hens decided she doesn't like the 14 week olds anymore and has taken to roosting in the rafters of the coop.

The first night we got her down, but she goes back. She is not a flighty bird and kinda heavy (7.5 lbs EE), so how she is flying up there is beyond me. The rafter is 8' up! The odd part is that we changed the perches (lowered them!) a few days ago and she has perched in the rafters since! Why she chose the rafters after we LOWER the rafters a foot is odd...she is still above everything in the coop.

Will she be ok? I am worried about her hurting herself getting down. We do use the deep litter method, so I guess that adds some cushion.

 

[mekasmom]

She will be fine. Chickens like to roost high.

 

[lambchicks]

This is how I would look at it. She can fly well enough to get up there, so she should be able to fly well enough to get down.
I have a bug zapper in my coop. It hangs on a bracket mounted on the wall. And one certain hen roosts on the bracket each night. It is about 7 feet off the floor. It is so cute, each night when I go to lock the door, she is looking down on me with the look on her face like "who is coming in the door? do I need to flog them?"

 

[BarkerChickens]

True... I won't worry about her then. I feel bad for any bird that decides to sleep under her.

 

[lambchicks]

I feel bad for any bird that decides to sleep under her.

 

[chickenwhisperer123]

Our highest chickens roosts are probably 6' up, and all of the chickens end up fighting over them....

Shell be fine.

 

[scooter147]

My EE are good flyers, they seem to have larger wings then your standard breeds.
I did not have my netting all the way to the coop but I ended up having to extend it to the coop walls because of the EE's.

I would come home in the evening and three of my four EE's would be running about the yard. I could not figure out how in the world they were getting out, no holes no torn netting etc.

Then one morning I sat out on the patio and watched and one by one they flew to the coop roof and out. The coop roof is at least 8 feet high, they went to the top of it with EASE. I would have never guessed a "standard" sized full grown hen could have gotten that high.

 

[BarkerChickens]

Quote:
One of my smaller EEs can easily fly around. She'll fly over the 6' chain link fence to hang out in the garden (with no problem). Her wings are now clipped. Molly, the one who is now roosting in the rafters, is as big as our BRs! She usually isn't a flier, but as long as she stays in the run, I won't worry about her new flying abilities!

ETA: 8 feet!?! That's crazy! While Molly is getting 8 ft up, I suspect she is taking advantage of the perches along the way.