Perches extend full length of coop?

[featherfooted]

The coop I had at our last house was 8'x20' (boy, do I miss it) and I had the roosts go full length of the short side. It was under a window and the girls seemed to really enjoy it in the summertime. I had 3 2x4s across the 8' side in a stair step this way even the Silkies could get on the roosts.

 

[gardendufus]

My roost extends from wall to wall (about 7 feet). When I do a roost check after they bed down, I see the following: The six birds who are 'top' of the pecking order split up, 3 on one side, against the wall, and 3 on the other side, also against the wall. They jostle and fuss a lot as 'who gets the wall' is decided. The 4 birds on the low end of the pecking order end up with the middle of the roost........with separation on each side of them from the 6 top birds. So, my observation is that they like to lean up against the wall. So much so that until they got too large, one of them would roost on the 2 X 4 (2" side up) that created the 'T" that the roost was actually attached to. I hope you know what I mean, one 2 X 4 parallel and attached to the wall, supports the 2 X 4 (4" side up" roost which is perpendicular to the coop walls. Not much room for them to roost on that cross piece, but they preferred it to being away from the wall.

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

We built ours the width of the coop. They seem to like it so far. We have 8 marans and 3 game hens.

 

[kellieetal]

If they all like corners, then couldn't you divide the length of the roost up with a divider board about every two feet? I don't know off hand how to design that so it's sturdy enough not to be knocked over by a snoozing, squeezing bird, but easily removable enough that it would not be a problem to disassemble quickly for cleaning. hmmm...

 

[kellieetal]

As a related question, if I'm choosing heavy-bodied birds like buff bramas, do I need to keep their roost a little lower than for a lighter bird--thinking it might be a little harder for the more "full-figured girls" go hop on up to the higher roosts. Would about a foot off the floor of their poop board be too high for such heavy birds? (or too high, or way too low?)

 

[DeannaOR]

"chicken jail" makes me think of my kids stomping off down the hall having been sent to their rooms for misbehavior. "That's it, Ms. Chicken! TIMEOUT for you until you learn not to peck at your sisters!"

That has happened =) One of my hens Vera was getting a little lofty and being mean to some of the youngsters. I put her in chicken jail for a day and when she came back out she actually quit. She still has her moments.

 

[HEChicken]

DeannaOR, I love your idea of using the area under the poop board! Right now I am brooding chicks in the coop and have a hen thinking about going broody and I have a constant struggle trying to figure out where to put them all. I haven't used the area under the roost until now because I didn't want whatever was under there being pooped on. But if I used a poop board, I could then use the area under the roosts! Hmmmm.....off to think about how to most easily reconfigure my coop. Scrap lumber and chicken wire I have aplenty so all I would need is a little hardware to mount the doors.

 

[DeannaOR]

DeannaOR, I love your idea of using the area under the poop board! Right now I am brooding chicks in the coop and have a hen thinking about going broody and I have a constant struggle trying to figure out where to put them all. I haven't used the area under the roost until now because I didn't want whatever was under there being pooped on. But if I used a poop board, I could then use the area under the roosts! Hmmmm.....off to think about how to most easily reconfigure my coop. Scrap lumber and chicken wire I have aplenty so all I would need is a little hardware to mount the doors.

It is my favorite thing we did. Neither of us are builders and we struggled a little bit, it was a good test of our relationship, lol. The other thing I am happy we did was make a door on each end of the coop, so later we can divide it if we want to or simply move the run the the other side. We also made the doors 24 x 24" for the turkeys. Several people have bought a turkey from us and then figured out they would have to re-do their access door. I divided the chicken jail so it is now two spaces under there. Since I have developed a hatching habit, it has been nice to rotate the youngsters into the group.
One thing I learned...make the coop as big as you can, ours is 8 x 12' and I still wish it were a bit bigger. The big thing that I would change is that I should have made an inside area for feed and tools. I think we will add that, it's starting to rain here and neither one of us appreciate standing outside to gather feed.

 

[DeannaOR]

The coop I had at our last house was 8'x20' (boy, do I miss it) and I had the roosts go full length of the short side. It was under a window and the girls seemed to really enjoy it in the summertime. I had 3 2x4s across the 8' side in a stair step this way even the Silkies could get on the roosts.

I would miss it to! I have two hens that I got as adults, I think the people that had them before trimmed their wings wrong because they have never grown back. They have a tough time getting up on the rail, so I set a stool on one end and they both took to using it right away.
I just set up a second coop that is much smaller, neither of them use the roosts inside, so I think they may be too high or they feel like they don't have enough jumping room. Still trying to figure it out.

 

[Brucepierce]

arrggghh I just rebuilt my perch going from corner to corner as it so overwhelmingly seems to be the right choice....but I didn't make it removeable for cleaning...I'm in such a rush to do this stuff I'm not thinking clearly until I log in here and get schooled....thanks all​