Question About Roosting

[dgriffi3]

Hi! I'm new here, and this might be a silly question, but here goes. We have 5 chicks, almost 3 months old, and we're in central Florida. We have a large run area, roughly 15 ft. by 40 ft, and we're building a coop for them to sleep in. It's a simple A-Frame with a solid floor that sits about 3 feet off the ground, just to keep predators out at night. During the day, I expect they'll just be outside all day. (Again, we're in Florida

Unfortunately, we built the frame for the coop before I realized they're supposed to have a roost. (We followed the Ana White plans online.) I'm not sure there's going to be room in there for a roost! How important is it?

Right now, they sleep in a dog crate. I have a stick in there that they do roost on, and they seem to sleep there.

OK, long question short: Will a raised floor be enough, or do they need a stick or something like that?

Thanks!

 

[Hokum Coco]

Most people on this site use a 2x4 wide side up as a roost. They also employ poop boards underneath (mine is 3 1/2 inches below the roost which save the day when eggs are laid at night).

 

[centrarchid]

Show a picture of the coop. You can use about anything the birds will perch on as a roost. Roosting up provides two advantages; keeps feathers from being damaged and can provide protection from some predators like opossums and even raccoons if the predator can not climb up to the roost.

 

[dgriffi3]

Thanks for the replies. It's the coop shown here ( http://ana-white.com/2012/05/plans/frame-chicken-coop ), but we only built it half as long as is shown. The reason is, we are using it in a much larger run, so we aren't going to put wire around the bottom and use it as a run. Ours isn't quite finished yet. (Should be tomorrow!)

I hope it isn't too small for our birds. We thought, since they will only really sleep there, they would be OK huddled together. I'm just not sure it will be wide enough for a roost that will fit all 5 of them. (I'll have to look into poop boards. I'm not sure I follow yet.)

We kind of jumped into this impulsively...should have done some more research first, I guess!

 

[centrarchid]

Design is big enough for 5 adult birds to roost in.