Perches extend full length of coop?

[DeannaOR]

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.

 

[kellieetal]

"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!"

 

[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​

 

[Brucepierce]

DeannaOR...I love the chicken jail, great idea, I'll be adding a Stoney lonesome to my coop...thx

 

[bruceha2000]

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?)

My understanding is the birds want to be as high as they can get. I guess they feel safer high up in the "tree".

I have one roost at 2' and two at 4' parallel to the back wall. The lower (3" round fence rail) is 9" forward of the forward top roost (2x4 on the flat) which is 18" forward of the rear roost (another fence rail) which is 12" from the back wall. All the rails are 8' long, attached to the right side wall and are open on the left supported by a 2x4 narrow side up perpendicular to the back wall. There are also 2 plastic swimming pool ladder steps at 1 and 3 feet. I put them in since I didn't know if the little girls could get up 2 feet at a time.... and they were free

They don't use those any more. You will notice I made use of the existing side wall, thus the 4' height. Nothing scientific or heavily researched about the 4' height though that does seem to be somewhat common. I DID research the spacing between the wall and the rear roost and the rear roost to the front.



My girls are 20 weeks old today. The EEs and Australorps are the biggest. Every one can fly to the top of the 4' roost if they want because they can fly to the top of the 4' gate that is the end of their indoor run. I was surprised to find, being new to chickens, that a 4' fence keeps the chickens "in" for as long as THEY want to be "in". Generally they take the "easy" route to the top roosts though, using the 2' high roost as an intermediate step.

Every one roosts at the 4' level but they seem to have no set pattern on where or who sleeps next to who (or is that whom?). When they were little (went in at 4 weeks) they all sat on left side support and those that didn't fit between the roosts were on the roosts squished up against the others. After a time, they decided they wanted to be over on the right side next to the wall on both 4' roosts. Lots of squawking and flapping as the "top" girls walk over the others to get where they want to be. Then about half decided to be on one end, half on the other -3 birds per roost both ends. THEN on Friday, they were all lined up on the rear fence rail from end to end like they got all OCD about equal spacing or something. I have NO idea what chickens are thinking. Especially the EE that seems to think she should sleep on the wall in the next room over right by the forward roost. They put themselves to bed, we go in later to count beaks and shut their chicken door. We have had to move Andromeda 3 times.

If you didn't want to read all that, here is the executive summary:
No, the big girls will be happy up high and they will get there. Give them an intermediate step if you don't think they can make it in one jump and flap. I figure the exercise is good for them

Bruce

 

[bruceha2000]

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 wouldn't. They will fly to an open space then walk along the roost to get where they want to be. If you put in dividers, they will have to fly directly to a space, especially hard if there is already a bird in one of the 2' spaces. Besides that, when it is cold they will want to be next to another warm body. The dividers would make that impossible.