Please help! How much room needed between roost and ceiling?

[barg]

Not knowing all the details of your coop etc...
I'm not sure how much help this will be, but here it is.

I currently have 4 that are 9+ weeks and 2 that are 1+ week old. All are standard size, not quite as big as orps but decent size.

Here are 2 different views of my roosts
/roosts2.jpg
As you can see in this pic, I have 1 nest box on the floor and 1 nest box at roost level.

From the opposite side
/roostol.jpg
The 2 parallel 2x4s are approx 39 inches across
The 2x4 that goes across them as around 3 feet.
The one that goes across is nailed to the other 2, so they are about at the same height.
The chickens have been out in the coop almost 3 weeks.
For a little while they slept, at night, in the area outlined in blue.
Now they pretty much sleep in the area outlined in red.
They are cramped and when the get a little bigger I imagine they will have to spread out a little, but for now that’s where they choose to sleep.

The roost is around 13 or 14 inches off the floor of their house, I’ve yet to see one of them get out a tape measure and complain

During the day, all of them have taken a turn sitting in the upper nest box, they don’t do this regularly, but they have all tried it out. Just to be on the safe side, I shooed them out of it.

They have never attempted to sleep in it at night.

This house will eventually house all 6 and I have been told by some it is lacking in floor space at 39 inches x 51 inches.
In my climate I’m not sure this will actually be as much of a problem as it is for those living in harsher climates, but my coop is designed to be expandable, so if necessary in the future, I will.

The roost space I have should be plenty, I also don’t see any need, with this sort of setup, to have any poop catcher, and the floor is the poop catcher.

If you haven’t seen my other pics of my coop, and want to, its here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=7142&p=3

As far as head room, I don’t worry about it, they have several feet above them with the peaked roof I have.

If that was helpful great, if it wasn’t, ignore it, if it was misleading I apologize.

 

[Jsto]

Thanks Barg, it was good to see a visual

My coop is 8x8 with a slanted/flat roof, so I'm not sure the wall to wall would work for me.

I was playing around this morning, drawing up ideas, and had one that I think may possibly work. What about doing it in the corner? I think it would tackle my major issue, which is that my previous plan ended up taking up way too much floor space and I wasn't comfortable making the incline any steeper. (Doing it ladder style). If provided with 3 or so roosting poles/2x4's, it stands to reason that the highest wouldn't have to be so long since the rooser would be the only one on it, right? It wouldn't be tiny, but not as long as the others.

I can't go wall to wall because it's just taking up space where it's not needed. I imagine I could if I only put in one roost, but I'd prefer to have a few shorter ones rather than one 8 footer. But, in the corner I could go from one wall to the next.

Anyone done it this way? How does it work for you?

Ahh, 4myhennypenny, we will conquer these roosts eventually! For now, I suppose we can just share each other's threads and ideas !

 

[MissPrissy]

My roof is a sloped roof as well. There is between 3 - 5 foot between the roost poles and the roof.

 

[4myHennyPenny]

Thanks for all the pics and ideas. They're very helpful, and I'm sure Jsto and I aren't the only ones confused on this issue. Keep 'em comin'!