Roost bar and poop board depth question

[Cryss]

Thanks @Chad Oftedal for the detailed info! It seems I am pretty limited on my 4x4 then

Maybe you could make a 2 stage ramp agains the walls. Figure out how long you need it to be. Place the ramp a foot from their close wall. Make a ramp from the roost running along the side wall all the way to the far wall halfway down. Then attach a second ramp to the bottom of the first ramp running along the far wall and ending at the floor. Good luck! I hope you remember to take pictures!

 

[CajunChooks]

hope you remember to take pictures

Documenting every step and will post!

 

[CajunChooks]

So... I am here to dispute all the information people have shared about the minimum space needed per bird on a perch. Apparently, you only need 2 inches for ALL your birds put together, not even PER bird. Or maybe I just got special quantum chickens that can occupy the same space at the same time (see photo below). This is a 5 week old Australorp nudged under a 6 week old Buff Orpington.

Is that an australorp or the buff orpington's shadow???

The australorp is the one I mentioned in a previous post that I found burrowed under the feeder the first night it was out (They have been out confined to the coop for about 5 days, finishing the run tomorrow, plus I read that's the way to teach them to come to the coop at night). She is doing this every night. The one time I tried to have the 2x4 standing up, she would push the orpie off the board by trying to get under her!

Ok, now seriously though, they seem really scared when bed time comes! I am keeping the door to the coop open and the roof propped up halfway for light all day (both are covered with hardware cloth), and I come close it right before the last bit of natural light is out. When I come, they are totally freaked out. They are either nudged on a tight corner (on the floor) or by the window (the door temporarly covered with hardware cloth, no ramp). When I get there, they chirp like crazy and try desperately to jump on my hand and then climb up my arm to me. I have to grab them and put them down on the roost! Is there something wrong? Should I close the coop up when there is still more light out? Or are they just bored in quarantine all day?

Another photo of the burrowing madness:

Why the heck do they prefer this instead of the roost? I mean, the roost is definitely higher. But it does seem like they stay on the roost till morning once I put them there and they close up. I am putting a night camera in there soon, will share their shenanigans once I can see what they are doing when I am away.

quantum chickens, I tell ya....

 

[Ridgerunner]

Why the heck do they prefer this instead of the roost?

My brooder-raised chicks tend to start roosting around 10 to 12 weeks of age. I've had some start as young as yours and some wait longer, but 10 to 12 weeks is a pretty good average. Perhaps the layout of my coop and roosts affect that.

Broody-raised chicks are different. If adults are roosting on the main roosts it's different.

My suggestion is to have a bit of patience. Give them a chance to be chicks before they have to be chickens.

 

[Cryss]

My brooder-raised chicks tend to start roosting around 10 to 12 weeks of age. I've had some start as young as yours and some wait longer, but 10 to 12 weeks is a pretty good average. Perhaps the layout of my coop and roosts affect that.

Broody-raised chicks are different. If adults are roosting on the main roosts it's different.

My suggestion is to have a bit of patience. Give them a chance to be chicks before they have to be chickens.

Well said. They’re still chicks.

 

[Quadzilla32]

Hey guys/ gals,

I need to bounce an idea off of you and see if there is a better way to do what I want. I'm adding a poop board and roosting bars to my new coop and came up with this configuration

Coops 4x8 I want to utilize the most space that I can and plan to have a raised poop board that will allow the chickens to still walk under and us the whole floor space. My question is how high should the board be to allow chickens to walk under and how high above that should the roosting bars be? I read that the bars should be at least one foot away from the walls. I have 6 chickens so I plan to do 2 4ft roosting bars slightly staggered in height. How far apart to the bars need to be? I plan to use joist hangers on the walls so i can take the bars out to clean as needed.

Was thinking of doing 14/15 inches for BP and then 6 inches above that for the first RB.

Cliff notes: 4x8 coop, adding raised poop board with roosting bars above it. I need height for PB which will allow the chicken to walk under it. Also need to know how far above the BP the bars need to be and distance from one bar to another.

 

[24279102]

Thanks so much for the advice @Ridgerunner ! We are planning on the poop board being a tray to hold sand and/or PDZ. I'm not sure yet what I'll use to scoop it out. I was thinking of a cat litter scoop. Yes it will be so much easier to clean it if it's not so wide.

The Larger litter scoops work great for me with the PDZ. 2 of them. one for putting under the poop and the other for scraping it in. Then just shake and put the remaining poop wherever you plan.

 

[Ridgerunner]

A 4x8 coop is not likely to be a walk-in. If the droppings board is high enough for the chickens to get under it one may decide to lay there. It needs to be high enough that you can see under there occasionally and maybe access that area. You don't have to look every day, but occasionally.

Another factor is how tall is your coop? The way I handle elevation in the coop is to determine where floor level is. That's top of bedding, not necessarily the floor. Then position the nests. Some people like the nests down on the coop floor, some like them higher so they don't have to bend that much. If yours is elevated as I think it might be, take into account how you gather the eggs, probably from the outside. Then put the roosts noticeably higher than the nests so they are a lot less likely to sleep in the nests. Also it is a good idea to put some permanent ventilation up high, summer and winter, so any breezes blowing across are above the chickens back. So you determine roost height first to determine droppings board height.

The distance between your roost and droppings board can vary. The main thing is so you can clean the board. How do you plan to clean it? Some people build trays, fill them with sand or PDZ, and scoop the poop out. I have a flat board and use a broken garden hoe to scrape the poop into a bin.

The general minimum recommended distances are 12" from the wall and 12" horizontal between any two roosts. The droppings board should extend from the wall to 12" outside the outside roost. In your case that makes the board 3 feet wide. Lots of people have 4x8 coops and it;s not a bad size for 6 chickens but maybe you can see why I really like my big walk-in coop.

Good luck.

 

[AG Aimless]

Perches two feet from the wall is fine, and so is one foot. Any closer, you'll have poopy walls.

The poop board just needs to be positioned so it covers a foot on each side of the perch to accommodate chickens facing in either direction. Some new chicken keepers have the notion their chickens will all roost like a platoon of marines, all facing the same way.

I don't think it matters a lot how far the poop board is from the perch. Mine are around sixteen inches.

One foot from the wall is good okay good thanks I've been hunting for this information