Roost height / outdoor roost for Black Star Sex Links?

[oxfordethan]

I recently purchased some 10 month old BSL's. I'll go out to the coop at dusk to find only 2 of the 6 actually on the roost in the coop. The others seem content on roosting on the chicken ramp into the coop. These birds are definately larger than the RIR I usee to have. The first night I heard a couple of them struggling to make it to the bottom roost which was about 18" off of the floor of the coop. So yesterday I lowered the front bottom one to 12" and the top one behind it to 18". They still were roosting in the floor of the coop and on the chicken ramp. I get the feeling that they may have had an outside (the coop but in the run) roost at their previous home. I'm thinking of adding an outdoor roost to the run... What say the hive? Pics for reference in the thread linked.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/774754/circle-p-coop-relocated#post_11068380

 

[ChickenCanoe]

If the run is predator proof adding a roost under a covered portion may be a good idea. I have a friend with several chickens in a predator proof covered run and coop. The hens chose to sleep on the run roost every single night all this winter. This was a very cold snowy winter here. There are no ventilation problems in the run.

 

[OldGuy43]

When we first started in chickens two plus years ago I built them roosts. Turns out that our Red Sex-Links will use anything but the roost. I finally just took them down and used the wood for other things. They're gonna do what they want.