Perches extend full length of coop?

[bruceha2000]

I'm building a 10' x 6' coop. Should all the roosts be together on 1 wall, or is it ok to put them on two opposite walls. Does it matter to the chickens?

And what is the best to use for a roost? I see people use everything from 1' dowels, to natural branches, to 2x4s.

You can put the roosts anywhere you like. In fact, opposite walls might be better because those lower in the order won't have to be close to those at the top if they are pushy about their position.

From my LIMITED experience:
If possible, make them all high with an intermediate "step" away from the end wall if the birds can't fly directly to the roost.

My girls have two 8' long parallel roosts (18" apart) at 4' high attached to a wall on one end and held up by a 30" long 2x4 on edge and leg brace on the open end. The rear 8' is a 3" round fence rail, the forward one is a 2x4 on the flat. There is another 8' round fence rail at 2' parallel to and 9" forward those at 4'. They roost in 3 groups:
- a few on the open end next to the wall on the 2x4 on edge and the end of the fence rail
- some on the rear 4' high roost up against the wall
- the rest on the forward 4' high roost up against the wall.

None has EVER roosted on the 2' high rail, not even when they were a month old. My "take away" on this pattern is:
- They want to be high
- They want to be against a wall, at least in the winter. Which is why I said the intermediate step should be away from the wall. If they can't make the roost with a hop and a couple of flaps, you don't want the "staging" area to be at the "prime" roosting spot or those lower in the order would have to land on those that are higher then try to get to an open space. I think that would not be a positive thing. Especially since my girls STILL jockey for position EVERY night. You would think by now they would have figured out who gets to choose where they sleep and who has to take what is left and go to the roosts in some order that would avoid the "higher ups" walking over or pushing off those that are lower. Because: The top girl WILL sleep where she wants.

It will be interesting to see if the pattern changes as the weather warms. I would assume they don't want to cram together when it is 80F like they do when it is 0F

They did last summer but I've been told that they are more likely to do that in warm weather when they are very young than when they are adults.

Bruce

 

[MoonShadows]

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for that detailed reply. Do you have any pics?

Jim

 

[Time-Out]

I made on roost slightly shorter than the width of the coop. What a stupid idea. What a waste of space. It was a tree branch too. No idea what went through my mind. I should have cut it at 6'.
I've found no-one likes to be on the end that sticks out into nowhere. I guess it's because they invariably get shoved off as more jump on.

 

[MoonShadows]

Thanks for that tid bit, Time-Out. I decided to put my roosts on the side wall. I was going to make them 6 feet wide, but the coop is 8 feet wide. I'll extend them the entire length of the side wall after what you said.

Here's another question. I am probably going to make a ladder-type roost based on feed back I have read. How much space should I put between each rung so the chicken poop lands in it's intended taget, the drop pan, and not on the bird the next rung down if a chicken or two decided to roost in the opposite direction from the others?

 

[Time-Out]

Here's my mistake: a 5' perch in a 6' gap.


I'll replace it when I find a decent branch. It's not urgent, it just means some of them prefer to sleep underneath, on the poop tray and poop down the back onto the pop door handle.

(This is an old photo)

I can't really advise much on the ladder roost as I haven't tried different distances. The one we have has a foot of horizontal space between each roost. The angle will dictate how far down your other roosts will need to go.

 

[bruceha2000]

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for that detailed reply. Do you have any pics?

Jim

Note that the coop is a converted 9' deep by 12' wide horse stall inside an ancient barn. I used 8' roosts because I already had the "parts". Most everything you see was made from "stuff" that was already in the barn when we bought the place. My expenses were the hardware cloth and hardware for the doors (hinges, latches, etc).

This is the open divided nest box on the side wall. It's location (and lack of outside access) are specific to the pre-existing location of the water container and the shortness of the wall to the right. It has a 5 nipple 4' long water pipe built into the bottom surrounded by rigid foam. There are loops of tubing on top of the foam and under the 3/16" plywood floor of the nests. The heated water circulates from the 5 gallon container behind (and outside the coop). In the summer, the pump and heater will be removed from the container it will just be gravity feed. That is Clemence, the STOOPID chicken that has been trying to "hatch" pine shavings for the last 3 weeks. The picture was taken from the location of the second picture. The roosts are along the rear wall to the left of this picture.



Feeder and "access perch" for the enclosed community box (hole not yet cut when the picture was taken). Chicken door in front of the black bird.



Community box from the outside. It has 1" rigid foam sandwiched between plywood on the bottom and 3 sides (not the one with the hole because the girls LOVE to peck at and destroy rigid foam and I didn't want to deal with banding the egg shaped access hole). I put 2 pieces of foil faced bubble wrap insulation over the wood on the hinged tops.


Community box from the inside. There are some that still prefer the community, though more like the open boxes (hogged by the STOOPID bird)/ I don't know if they would like it better with more light. I'll try some plexiglass in place of the plywood in one of the tops when the weather warms just as an experiment.


Roosts. Yes, those gray things are steps from a plastic swimming pool ladder. FREE IS GOOD! Good thing the girls can't read. Printed on the steps are the words "no jumping or diving".


Roosts from the open end. Tonight one EE and one Ancona were against the wall on the close side, 4 girls at the far end of the rear pole and 6 on the far end of the front 2x4. They can easily hop the 18" gap. Distance to the back wall is 12".



As far as spacing a ladder type roost, The birds poop pretty close to the thing they are standing on so you don't need much horizontal distance.
But:

• The greater the vertical distance, the more horizontal you need. They CAN fly almost straight up (more of a jump and flap) but they don't seem too comfortable with vertical take off. There are 2 vertical feet between the front roosts and 9" horizontal. I don't think they would care for less horizontal distance.
• There will potentially be birds on the next roost down and the birds take up a good 9" either side of the roost if not more. So give their heads, backs and tails some consideration with regard to horizontal spacing.
  
• Consider the vertical distance with "how do I get to the poop board" in mind. I can easily step through the 2 foot/9"' gap but I wouldn't if it were 1 foot. Design so it isn't a pain to get to the board or to remove it.

Bruce

 

[MoonShadows]

Bruce,

Thanks for the great detail! Now, I see what you mean by steps; and now I can re-purpose an old pool ladder we have with similar steps.Getting to the poop area under the roosts should not be a problem. I plan to make a cut-out area on that side of the coop (probably 2 hinged doors about 3.5' x 0.5' right at floor level) and have poop pans that I can slide right out of the coop and clean.

Jim

 

[HEChicken]

Here's another question. I am probably going to make a ladder-type roost based on feed back I have read. How much space should I put between each rung so the chicken poop lands in it's intended taget, the drop pan, and not on the bird the next rung down if a chicken or two decided to roost in the opposite direction from the others?

For what its worth, I tried the ladder style and it was not hugely successful. I had 3 roosts, at 2', 4' and 6' high. Everyone wanted to be on the 6' high roost which led to constant bickering at bedtime. As it got more and more crowded but birds continued to try to get up there, invariably birds were pushed off, landed on the floor below and had to start all over.

I ultimately took the ladder roost apart, and built a new parallel beam roost that takes up the same space but now has 4 roosts instead of 3, all on the same level. This is working out MUCH better. There is virtually no bickering at bedtime now. The corner is still the favored spot and the birds highest in the pecking order get to sleep there. But the rest of the roosts end up with birds evenly spaced on them and no one gets pushed off any more.

Before:



After:



I was able to use almost the same lumber as on the ladder style. It contained 5 boards: the 2 uprights and the 3 roosts. I took one of the uprights, cut it in half, and that became the front legs for the new roost. The other four boards became the roosts themselves. The only lumber I had to add are the horizontal supports that are attached to the studs of the wall. Those were some pieces of scrap that I had laying around (actually, it was all scrap and as you can see, not in pristine condition but the birds don't care - they just find their 8-9" to sleep on for the night and they're happy. I think I started the new roost at a height of 3' (this is because I found that the jump down from the highest roost caused bumblefoot in a few of my birds). However with doing DLM over the winter, the floor has crept up so the roosts are probably not 3' off the floor any more. Everyone sleeps up here - LF, bantams, turkeys and ducks.

 

[bruceha2000]

For what its worth, I tried the ladder style and it was not hugely successful. I had 3 roosts, at 2', 4' and 6' high. Everyone wanted to be on the 6' high roost which led to constant bickering at bedtime. As it got more and more crowded but birds continued to try to get up there, invariably birds were pushed off, landed on the floor below and had to start all over.
That's why I did the 16' at 4' high. But they STILL bicker and birds hit the deep litter. Not about being on the highest roost but WHERE on them

The big or "higher in the order" girls walk over the smaller/lower girls and the small ones try to burrow under the bigger girls for a spot on the other side. Figure out who gets to sleep where BEFORE getting on the roosts and line up girls!

Those were some pieces of scrap that I had laying around (actually, it was all scrap and as you can see, not in pristine condition but the birds don't care - they just find their 8-9" to sleep on for the night and they're happy).

Yeah, they just poop on them anyway, no sense getting the really good stuff

Bruce

 

[Angelight]

I just laughed until I had tears! Thanks for the jail inclusion!

I tried to maximize use of space, so I did two 12' long..the length of our coop, with a poop board underneath and a chicken jail under that. I'm very happy with it. I use stall dry in the poop board and just scoop it with a kitty litter scoop. They use both the roost board and the rail for roosts.




The chicken jail has come in very handy for transitioning babies into the main flock.
I could also use it for a broody, or injured bird.