Placement of roosting bars

[Rooapalooza]

Is it okay to put roosting bars directly over each other vertically (with a couple feet between)? Has anyone done this and do the birds on the lower perch get too poopy?

Thanks!

 

[ScottyGill]

Is it okay to put roosting bars directly over each other vertically (with a couple feet between)? Has anyone done this and do the birds on the lower perch get too poopy?

Thanks!

Well my daft babies who decided to sleep right under the bigger birds got pooped on. They soon worked out that wasn’t a good idea. I would think they need to be staggered,like a leaning ladder

 

[Evelyn Walker]

Something more like this would be a better idea, IMO:

(photo from Google)

 

[Alaskan]

Usually they fight to get on the highest perch.... so a couple of perches at the same height work best... about 1 foot apart works, but 1.5 feet apart is better.

 

[DellaMyDarling]

I can tell you that the angle produced by a standard wooden ladder allows for considerably poopy chickens.

Space them out, like the picture above shows.

 

[David61]

I like mine and so do the birds. A foot apart and a foot higher everytime at a minimum for me. View attachment 1947369 View attachment 1947368

 

[Rooapalooza]

Those look really nice, thanks! I have kind of an odd set up at the moment with plenty of space on my top perches, but my youngest chickens keep sleeping on a bar underneath the main perch. They haven't been pooped on yet, but they are still pretty small targets . Maybe when they get a bit older they'll be ready to hang with the big girls. For now I'll start moving them up myself.

 

[Acre4Me]

We also have ladder roosts. We put them on a hinge, so they can be lifted up out of the way for cleaning. We also added a fixed roost to the back wall that does not interfere with the movement of the hinges ladder roosts. We have some big chickens, including BJG. The big BJG rooster uses the second highest roost (the fixed roost is the highest and is too close to the wall for his comfort, I think). The rooster shows up with poop streaks on his neck feathers occasionally.

We have since turned all roosts (except the bottom) to be narrow side up bc the wide side caused a major breast blister on our large BJG. His keel bone was resting on the board and caused the blister. No problems since we turned the bars almost a year ago. So, if you have very large breeds, my recommendation is round roosts (like branches or wood closet rod) or narrow side of a 2x4. Also, the added fixed roost is not in this pic, but it is attached to the side wall studs above and behind the highest ladder roost. Hinges are up at the top two corners, there is an eye bolt to use to raise the ladder roost with a rope and hook using a pulley attached to the ceiling.

 

[Rooapalooza]

That looks really nice, and good to know about the size!