Building new coop. What is the prefered material, diameter. width of roost material?
Starting with 4 month old pullets, does/should roost material change as they become adult hens?
John
Thought the roost should have been round so they can grasp it, looking at many pixs in the coop design pages I see that's not the case, seems they prefer to stand flat footed then grasp a rounded roost. I do like the idea of using various diameter tree branches, would flattening them out help?
You don't need to do anything to a tree branch. At four months, you shouldn't have to change roosts, they will not get that much bigger. Diameter would be big enough that they can't wrap their feet around it.
I dont thing it matters if its round or flat. Here in the north east flat is probably a little better as far as sitting on their feet to keep warm but mine prefer to roost on top of a pallet wall, probably too thin, but its what they prefer. They still have the 2x4 on the wall but its only 2 feet off the floor when they were young, they use that one mostly during the day I find.
Variety, that's what I'll do. Figure out what they like and go that direction.
Ground finally thawed, got posts set in concrete finally I can start construction
I use 2" x 2" (actually measure 1 3/4x 1 3/4). They seem to get use to whatever you have around. I've seen sticks, boards, etc and they all seem to adapt.