Roost bar pecking

[aart]

Interesting. When you say a divider, what do you mean? Just something separating one side of the roost from the other, or a divider separating two separate roosts?

Yes, have seen this work well......but only if you have adequate roost length with access to both 'sections' of roost.

AARF,Thanks for the quick reply!

Yes, I have three birds total, and up until integrating the new hen, they would all sleep basically on top of each other on the roost.

The roost is only about a foot off the ground, so is an easy hop to get up there. I will see what I can do about adding a bit more roost space, but with the feeders and waterers, I worry about taking too much space with the roost.

Even a foot up might take some wing action. 4x4 is tight space, hard to fit everything in there.
Maybe pics of inside and outside of your coop and run would garner some suggestions.
Maybe you can keep the fed and water in the run, if you can protect it from the winter weather. Maybe smaller feed and water vessels in the coop.
How do yo plan to keep water thawed in winter?

 

[SueT]

Interesting. When you say a divider, what do you mean? Just something separating one side of the roost from the other, or a divider separating two separate roosts?

So it's a piece of plywood paneling fastened w zip ties to window mesh and with a little bungee to the branch. It can be moved or removed fairly easily. The chickens get the idea right away and take advantage of the privacy. I said in post above that this branch is 5' long, but it's only 4'. There are 8 chickens and several other roosts, but this one is the most desirable. This little Sebright will never be allowed up here at night, lol, but she likes to pretend.

 

[akchickenman]

Yes, have seen this work well......but only if you have adequate roost length with access to both 'sections' of roost.


Even a foot up might take some wing action. 4x4 is tight space, hard to fit everything in there.
Maybe pics of inside and outside of your coop and run would garner some suggestions.
Maybe you can keep the fed and water in the run, if you can protect it from the winter weather. Maybe smaller feed and water vessels in the coop.
How do yo plan to keep water thawed in winter?

Here are a couple pictures. One before the coop was completely finished. I inked on the picture where the water and feed are. The second is a shot of most of the roost. I am going to keep the water thawed with a bucket de-icer.

I am thinking since it is a perfectly square coop, I could add another roost a bit higher up from the current roost that spans one of the corners in the coop.

 

[akchickenman]

Perhaps where the black ink is on this picture would be a good spot for a smaller but higher roost.

 

[aart]

Roosts need to be a foot away from walls.
Where is the nest?
Pic of whole coop run from outside too?

 

[Chickassan]

Honestly from what I can see it wouldn't be too hard to make the coop a bit bigger.

 

[akchickenman]

Nest isn't on the coop for that picture. But it is in the opening that can be seen at the very bottom of the picture.

Attached are pictures of the run. It is fully covered and fenced in.

 

[akchickenman]

Honestly from what I can see it wouldn't be too hard to make the coop a bit bigger.

Its true, this is an easily modifiable coop. The issue is that my landlord has placed restrictions on how big it can be, so I cannot expand it at this time. For only 3 chickens, which is all that I need right now as far as egg production goes, I am meeting all the suggested square footage numbers providing 4 sqft indoor space, and over 10 sqft run space for each bird.

Don't get me wrong, I would love a bigger coop, and plan to expand the run area after my next move, but it isn't in the cards at this point.