Proper design of Roost Bars

[aart]

That sounds fine in terms of distance from the vents. Not a lot of height for the roosts themselves though, chickens like sleeping up high. You can go another foot up and be fine with the vents. And make sure the roosts are higher than the nesting boxes, so the chickens don’t sleep in the boxes.

Yes, on roosts higher than nests, but that's it they don't need to be any higher.
The more space between roost and upper venting the better.

 

[Rodrad]

Yes, on roosts higher than nests, but that's it they don't need to be any higher.
The more space between roost and upper venting the better.

At what level are your nesting boxes? How high do you keep bedding and, if it is at the floor level do you have a provision to prevent bedding getting into the boxes?

 

[Ann With A Plan]

I fear I am about to soil someone's shrine, but here is a modern era reference to proper roost bar design:

http://www.yourchickens.co.uk/care-and-advice/the-perfect-perch-1-2842822

Interesting. Thanks. I have 2 thick branches in there that they perch on. I may put some rubber around them.

 

[K0k0shka]

Thank you again very much, for your responses. I feel somewhat bad that I ask you so many questions. But I like your experience....

Don't feel bad, I like helping people. Others have helped me on here, now I'm paying it forward. Ask away!

Well, another question, for deep bedding do you have or is it good to have, something like linoleum (or rubberized paint) over the wood (plywood?) floor?

If all goes well, deep bedding should be dry, so the risk of damage to the floor is low. However, I like playing it safe, so I gave my floor protection just in case. I painted it like I painted the walls and everything else, with a waterproofing stain, and, in addition to that, I covered it with oilcloth. And by oilcloth I mean the modern-day synthetic equivalent to what was once oilcloth - so, no oil or cloth on it really, it's just a plastic-like synthetic material, but it's thick and durable, and cheap. Cheaper than linoleum, but it does the job well enough. I bought it on Amazon, sold by the yard. Probably not necessary for my purposes, but just in case. You can see pictures of it on my coop page.

Oh, when you mentioned roost height, how high are your nesting boxes from the floor (so that your deep bedding doesn’t migrate inside)?

I'd say about a foot off the floor. Will measure tomorrow when I measure the roosts. Don't forget to put the pop door and the human door some distance off the floor as well, so your bedding doesn't spill out when they're open.

 

[Rodrad]

Don't feel bad, I like helping people. Others have helped me on here, now I'm paying it forward. Ask away!


If all goes well, deep bedding should be dry, so the risk of damage to the floor is low. However, I like playing it safe, so I gave my floor protection just in case. I painted it like I painted the walls and everything else, with a waterproofing stain, and, in addition to that, I covered it with oilcloth. And by oilcloth I mean the modern-day synthetic equivalent to what was once oilcloth - so, no oil or cloth on it really, it's just a plastic-like synthetic material, but it's thick and durable, and cheap. Cheaper than linoleum, but it does the job well enough. I bought it on Amazon, sold by the yard. Probably not necessary for my purposes, but just in case. You can see pictures of it on my coop page.


I'd say about a foot off the floor. Will measure tomorrow when I measure the roosts. Don't forget to put the pop door and the human door some distance off the floor as well, so your bedding doesn't spill out when they're open.

Very thankful for your great help in my designing the coop! Is there any step, platform for chicken to jump up to the nest?

One thought, in order just to rake the bedding out, I may put a removable plank or plywood about 12” high on the floor inside the coop in front of the door.

 

[Pye Wacket]

What I do is deep bedding, not deep litter. The difference is that deep litter composts and needs moisture, while deep bedding is bone dry and doesn’t compost. I don’t want deep litter because it doesn’t work well on a wooden floor, it needs bare dirt which is not what I have. Also, I don’t want the moisture (it can freeze in the winter, contribute to coop humidity, or smell if not done right). Deep bedding - the dry method - is less maintenance and easier. I bury the dirty bedding in the garden in the fall, and let it compost there overwinter, so I still get compost in the end, just not in the coop.

Ummm I guess I have no idea what the difference is between "deep litter" and "deep bedding".

I used (what I have always called) deep litter on plywood floor, but the floor was raised something like 30" - 36" off the ground. I painted the floor with cabinet paint which dried super hard and made it easy to hose out at the end of the season. I made the front hinge up so I could open the entire front and rake the litter out into a wheelbarrow to spread on my garden. I sealed all seams (including between the wall and floor) with paintable silicone. I had access to several small logging concerns where I could get all the sawdust I wanted - no I didn't use that as the entire litter, I put about 6" down and covered it with 18" of loose hay. Maybe that's not deep enough to really be considered "deep litter"? I always thought it was, LOL! It would settle over time but it never got wet or stinky.

A neighbor gave me a round bale of hay - I forget why he didn't want it but whatever it was, it was fine for this purpose and I still had most of it after 3 years LOL!

I forget how often I was raking it all out. I think in the spring and in the fall. I only had 12 birds in a coop that was sized for 24 so possibly that helped. It worked great. I had it set up so I could drop a slat at the tops of the walls for more airflow or close them back up for less. I had similar slats so I could drop them and collect the eggs, also I could sweep the hay out of the nest boxes from the outside.

I cannot for the life of me remember what I did about the roosts. I had several ideas and no idea now (25 years later) which one I actually implemented, LOL!

My dogs would sleep under the coop at night when it was warm enough (in cold weather just the American Eskimo Dog slept out there, I stuck a dog house under there in winter - not needed the rest of the year). I stuck a pallet under there to keep them off the ground if it got wet. It lasted the entire 3 years I was keeping hens. It was very very rural MO so predators were a problem so hardware wire all over the place to keep gnawing things and snakes out. I used slabs for siding (free from sawmills). Since I was never going to stand on the floor (or at least not for long) I used 2x4s for floor joists and I think it was 1/2" plywood for the floor. The coop was 8x8, the walls were 4 or 5' at the sides (remember the floor was suspended so the whole thing was 8' at the sides counting the space underneath) but taller in front (shed roof slanted front to back). It was pole frame.

I came home one day to find my border collie proudly presenting me with 2 raccoon carcasses. I still miss her. The Eskimo dog couldn't be arsed, LOL! But he barked a lot so ... that probably helped too. The funniest thing I ever saw was one day Fidget (the border collie) was herding something out in the pasture. I could just see the tip of her tail waving above the grass. Then I heard a loud yowl from one of the cats and the scent of skunk drifting on the evening breeze. The skunk got the poor innocent cat but missed the dog, she always herded from the head side LOL! She was fast. She wouldn't herd sheep to save a life, but wildlife was fair game as far as she was concerned. I never had to fence my (huge) garden because the deer didn't come on my property, not after their first herding experience, LOL! And Fidget knew to stay out of the garden. She knew ALL the boundaries and she kept to them. No fencing needed for that dog. (Of course it was 27 acres so plenty of room).

Arrrrrgggh I miss her!

 

[aart]

At what level are your nesting boxes? How high do you keep bedding and, if it is at the floor level do you have a provision to prevent bedding getting into the boxes?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aarts-coop-page.65912/

 

[Rodrad]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aarts-coop-page.65912/

Thanks for the attachment. You really applied a lot of aart (excuse my pun) in various aspects of your coop design and construction.. I will use some of your ideas, in particular the perch post in front of nesting boxes.

 

[K0k0shka]

I measured some things today. My roost diameter is 3" for the top roost - the one they sleep on - and 2.5" for the intermediate roost, the one they use to jump to and from to get up to the top roost. And the distance between the floor and the nesting box openings is 1 foot from the floor itself, and 8" from the top of the pine shavings. Because the nesting box has round openings which are several inches higher than the floor of the box inside, it's hard for the hay that's inside to be kicked out, or for shavings from the coop floor to be kicked in. Here's what my nesting box setup looks like:

 

[ackie]

A few months ago, I put new roosts in my coop.

One is a small tree trunk, the rest are large rose of sharon, so they're round-ish but not perfectly so.
Some took to them but I was still having many birds roosting on the wide 2x4 screwed to the back wall. I finally removed them completely yesterday (they were nasty) and forced them to use the rounded roosts.
This picture shows overcrowding in one pen, I know, but they chose it lol. They're closer to 50/50 in each pen tonight.