please show off your roosting bar dividers!

[Tonyroo]

This is awesome - thank you! That looks just like the kind of design that I need - easy, so I don't invest a ton of time/energy/materials into something that may not help, and I can figure out whether it helps quickly! I will be sure to use the correct type of staples - I think what I have are the ones that are the dangerous ones that aren't strong enough.

I had my nest box shelf right under my rooster's roost. It also served as a drop board cause I made sure to make the top board extend out so any amount of poop can't get to the nest.

I have since moved it to find a better location. And the only reason I did this was my top hen claims all the nests. And if she sees someone in the nest she goes bonkers, peck, and does sumo slams on the hen that needs to lay. So I might just build an exterior nest box this spring or summer.

 

[Tonyroo]

Thank you!

Currently, there are 3 that sleep there - I have 1 Australorp, 1 red sex-linked, and 1 Wyandotte, all just over a year old. Next month, I will be adding 2 "Alchemist Blues" from Alchemist Farm (as far as I can tell, they're mostly Isbar/Silverrudd Blue), and I'm thinking of including 1 more chick - standard to large breed to that group, (right now leaning towards a Marans, or possibly a Bielfelder, since I'm really tired of dealing with accidental cockerels that I can't keep). I know I need to add more roost space before they're added to the roost situation.

I had heard that height, though I've definitely seen pictures with minimal distance between roost and drop board from people on here who seem to know what they're doing, as long as they're above the nest boxes. Part of my thought was ease of cleaning - both in terms of the lack of splatter and my ability to reach it (the coop is elevated already), so that's what I started with. I can definitely play with the height to see what happens - the easiest being just getting rid of the drop board and leaving the roost bar at its current height before I try anything else.

It seems like the easiest would be to set a second bar just above the top of the nest boxes parallel to the current one Do you see any other options? Diagonal would be difficult and not allow as much distance between birds on one end.

If I do the parallel one above the nests, is there an easy way to protect the space below the nests so all that poop doesn't get tracked into the nests and make the eggs a mess? Would you just make a roost frame like you show that doesn't go all the way to the nest box, instead of attaching the roost to the wall? Or adding some kind of roof material under the 1' in front of the nests? Or both?

Are you going to there farm to pick them up? I recently realized there close to where I live. Never ordered from them plus they don't carry the breeds I'm interested in.

 

[cityeggs]

Are you going to there farm to pick them up? I recently realized there close to where I live. Never ordered from them plus they don't carry the breeds I'm interested in.

Yes, I'm going to pick them up! It's a bit of a drive for me from the East Bay, but I already go up that way periodically anyway, so I can just pair the two tasks. If you get them mailed, their minimum is 10 chicks, but you can pick up as few as you want. I had checked them out before and wasn't interested in going the straight-run gamble route, but now that they have a line of auto-sexing (sex-linked? I can't quite tell which applies better) blue/green layers, and I can pick up just 2-3, I'm going to test them out. I'm new to all this and have only gotten 6 chicks so far, and all 3 of the Easter Eggers have been accidental cockerels, so this seemed to be a less stressful route than my odds of rolling another 1/10 chance to get a blue egg layer (I'm not taken with Cream Legbars).

 

[cityeggs]

Beware using the Arrow50 type staples/gun.......might not stay put and the loosened staples could be deadly

Thank you! I worried a little about this! If I use heavier duty staples, would that be ok?

Edit - I checked, and this is, in fact, the type of staple gun that I borrowed. Is there a better one that you recommend that doesn't have this problem?

 

[Cloverr39]

I used round wood closet bars. They seem big enough to hold on to a squat on. I see big square pieces of wood in some pictures. Are those better for them?

Yes, flat roosts are better for chickens. Their feet aren't meant to curl around a round roosting bar like parrot feet. Flat roosts also protect their feet from frostbite, because they can fully cover their feet with feathers.

Someone else said they have both flat and round roosts and all their chickens chose the flat roost. I imagine it's also more comfortable for them because their feet are in a more natural position.

 

[Granny23]

Yes, flat roosts are better for chickens. Their feet aren't meant to curl around a round roosting bar like parrot feet. Flat roosts also protect their feet from frostbite, because they can fully cover their feet with feathers.

Someone else said they have both flat and round roosts and all their chickens chose the flat roost. I imagine it's also more comfortable for them because their feet are in a more natural position.

Mine don't seem to mind the round ones because they are big but I will check into flat ones. Big rookie mistake on my part.

 

[lizo97]

Here you go. I have 4 "generations" so they don't get along well and have their little groups.

 

[cityeggs]

Thank you for the photos! Following up, I took Tonyroo's design and modified it to slide and avoid stapes - I'll post pictures when i remember to bring my phone out with me to the coop!

I have a removable roost bar, so I traced a 2 by 4 sized hole a few inches up from the bottom of an 18"x24" piece of cardboard, cut a cross into the center of the trace, cut the vertical sides to make tabs and bent the tabs opposite ways to provide a little stability (though that minimal amount disappeared quickly - probably not worth it). I slid those on the 2x4 and watched the chaos. Initially, I made 2 of them and put them 1' apart, but clearly they all wanted to be together - they squeezed all 3 of them into one opening - the one who sleeps on the poop board still managed to get to the other side of the roost bar onto the board between the bar and the wall, while the other two squeezed in the 1' section. I then pushed them apart to make 2' in between, and they seemed to be happier, but clearly they're not needed, so I"m glad I didn't spend any more time making something permanent, since all 3 of them sleep on 1 side of the divider together still. Also, somehow, mini-flock dynamics have changed and my RSL seems to now be the one at the bottom of the pecking order, and my BA is no longer losing neck feathers every night, so win-win?