One pullet not perching on the roosts at night.

[Safety Chicken]

Hi there,
My girls are almost 18 weeks. Until about 3 or 4 weeks ago, they all slept in a big pile on coop floor, then one day all but 3 decided to use the roosts. Over the course of a few days, 2 of the 3 hold outs also began to use the roosts, but I have one who prefers to sleep by herself on the top of my feeder. One night I went out and put her on the perch with the rest, but the next night and all nights since she still sleeps on the feeder lid. There's nothing wrong with her, there's plenty of extra roost space, and she's not the low girl on the totem pole, so I don't think there's any reason other than she prefers that spot. Should I make a bigger effort to put her on the roost every night until she figures it out or should I stop worrying about it?
Thanks so much!

 

[lazy gardener]

It's a habit that you want to break. You don't need a chicken pooping on your feeder. Yes, go out every night, and remove her from the feeder and settle her on the perch. One thing you might do if repeats of this handling don't break her of feeder perching would be to take a squirt bottle out, and before it gets dark, when she jumps up on the feeder, squirt her off. A couple of repeats of this will convince her that the feeder is not a good place to be.

I had a few persistent pullets who wanted to perch in the trusses of their sun room. I used the hose to convince them otherwise. They immediately jumped down, grumbled a bit, and toddled into the safety of the coop, like all chickens who want to live to see an other day should.

 

[Sublight]

Put something on top of the feeder that she cant stand on. If its a round feeder, then take some poster board, and make something that looks like the old dunce caps. She wont be able to jump on it cause it has no flat spaces. She will then be forced to look for somewhere new to roost.

 

[Safety Chicken]

Super, thanks so much!

 

[NorthTexasWink]

I used to cut the tops off of empty bleach bottles to keep chickens off hanging feeders/waterers. the hanging chain/cable fits through the mouth with the lid removed. for non-hangers, just cut with extra plastic tabs along the bottom edge to staple or tack or tape to secure.

 

[Safety Chicken]

Well, I fashioned a chicken wire sculpture to sit on top of my feeder (one of the metal Grandpa's Chicken Feeders), and achieved moderate success! I'll give her one more day and see if she decides getting pooped on by everyone else isn't that great and joins them on the roost, if not, I'll start putting her up there every night until she figures it out. Thanks for the help!

 

[TalkALittle]

Well, I fashioned a chicken wire sculpture to sit on top of my feeder (one of the metal Grandpa's Chicken Feeders), and achieved moderate success! I'll give her one more day and see if she decides getting pooped on by everyone else isn't that great and joins them on the roost, if not, I'll start putting her up there every night until she figures it out. Thanks for the help!View attachment 1110006

Your roost looks pretty full already. How many birds do you have and how long is your roost?

I know you said that she isn't the lowest in the pecking order, but it might just be that she's really good at avoiding conflict. I have 2 bantams that don't really get picked on because they go to a lot of effort to stay out of the way of my big girls. There is hardly any obvious conflict--very few squabbles or pecking--but they are at the bottom of the order. There are more squabbles between my big girls than between the big girls and my bantams. It could just be that this one girl is choosing not to fight this fight so roosts on the feeder. I'd discourage her from roosting on the feeder but I'd also be inclined to offer her an alternative to roosting with the others.

 

[Safety Chicken]

There are two other roosts in the coop besides the one everyone is perching on in the photo, it's just that that roost is the most desirable because it's the highest so they all smash in there. I have 9 chickens and 12 linear feet of roost space. My spitzhaubens and the orust are half the size of the other chickens so there's currently room for almost everyone on the highest roost bar. The one on the poop board is one of the two largest chickens (SFH), so size certainly isn't her problem. I just re-homed 3 pullets and a cockerel in the past 3 weeks, two just this past weekend, and two of the girls I re-homed definitely were bullies, so hopefully there's a new pecking order now and that will help!

 

[NorthTexasWink]

Mine finally all started roosting together at night. Took about 5 days putting them up there. They are about 8 weeks old.

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• NorthTexasWink
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• NorthTexasWink
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• NorthTexasWink
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• NorthTexasWink
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[Safety Chicken]

Ah! If they try hard enough, they all can fit, for now, sort of. I put her up on the roost before everyone was getting settled, and she defended her position quite dramatically (she's 3rd from the left)! I love having a live coop cam!