Roost height

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

Not all bales are created equal . Commercial and high-end balers use very tight plastic ribbon (rather than the blue or orange baling twine) that holds the bale together until those ribbons are cut, and these bales are much more dense. Your homemade straw or hay bale (the ones we amateurs make at the farm) are much looser and come apart much more quickly.

The commercial bales are very dense and heavy - 70 lbs. here. The less dense ones about 35.

That must be what our difference is! I have 27 chickens and they just got a bale apart today. It lasted a year and then they had a field day for the entire day.

 

[CKfarm22]

Mine is 36" off. Just measured it. But now that the handyman is here I think I'll go ahead and ask him to lower it a little. Not so great at doing these things myself. I definitely would not put a heating lamp. The one I mentioned seeing was some sort of professional farmer's hanging heat thing I think. What about brooders that also work as a heater? I was told the one we bought was safe for outside.

In my opinion, chickens (fully feathered) do not need a heat source *unless* you live in a very very cold environment. As long as you have plenty of ventilation (minimum 1sqft per bird) you should be fine without one. Roosting keeps their feet warm and they tend to tuck their heads into their wings when it gets cold to protect their comb/wattles.

As someone else said, you don’t want your roost and nesting boxes the same height.

 

[CKfarm22]

That's true. It was in person, but only one time. Seemed like they were experts in everything, but ended up being a confusing and strange encounter after the fact. I'm assuming it was animal paradise, but maybe they were leaning towards animal hoarding. They had 9 goats on a plot of land much smaller than ours and were interested in rescuing some goats from my neighbor who was negligent. I had planned to take a couple of my neighbors goats we'd become attached to (the neighbor was grudgingly letting us bring water, which they never had, and was finally ready to let them go), but we weren't ready. They said they'd take the whole lot in the meantime and get them well until I had my setup. Once they got the goats, they never let us visit and blocked all further communication.

You could keep a secondary goat house next to the chicken coop/ build onto the chicken coop on one side. Something like this:

 

[Baileybunchx5]

Whatever roosts you choose, straw bales make everything so much easier. If you watch your birds get off of high roosts, especially in a narrow coop, you will see the need for steps of a sort. It took me awhile to figure out that straw bales were the answer, especially as they get older and it’s gets more difficult for them. I put them everywhere to help, stacking them in funny ways as needed. No matter how high you make the roosts, they always want them higher, but then they can’t get down! If I roost is 3 feet high, they need something like 5 feet in front of that to jump down. Straw bales help with that as well. I will attach a few pics of our set up. It’s not great though. We do try to use tree branches as much as possible to imitate nature. They seem to prefer the round natural roosts. Have fun with your coop build!
View attachment 3432913View attachment 3432915View attachment 3432916

Great idea. Thank you

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

You can put the roosts in at any height that is comfortable for you as long as it's higher than the nests and lower than the upper ventilation. But it's important to remember that most chickens fly at roughly a 45-degree angle and need about as much horizontal clearing as the roost is high in order to get up and down effectively.

Repecka Illustrates Coop Ventilation

I personally set my nests at elbow height and my roosts at shoulder height. I have arthritis and back problems and I'm not getting any younger.

I also have a ramp up to the perch to accommodate any birds that are too heavy to fly (I had a Brahma when this coop was built).

I don't recommend straw bales as permanent steps for the practical reason that my flock is capable of destroying a straw bale and spreading it over all available territory in no more than 3 days.

Haha - I think it’s so cute when, after 6 months to a year, my birds manage to get the strings off of a straw bale and play with the resulting mess for the next several days. I replace their straw bales at least once a year, using the old ones for the garden, in the runs, or to cover muddy places. They work beautifully for us. We have extras stacked up most of the time and they love jumping all over them. I stack them in creative ways to make things more fun for them too.

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

I wish mine would last even 6 days.

What’s with your silly birds? Is that where your profile name comes into play? They don’t seem to ever do what we want or expect! Maybe the bales I get are more tightly bundled? I get them from a local lumber yard, but the ones from the feed store hold up to my little dinosaurs too.

 

[CKfarm22]

. But it's important to remember that most chickens fly at roughly a 45-degree angle and need about as much horizontal clearing as the roost is high in order to get up and down effectively.

I’m asking this because i’m trying to figure out if i need a ramp or not.

My roost is about 30 in off the ground, by what you said, they need 30 in horizontally in order to fly down? Is that correct?

 

[3KillerBs]

I’m asking this because i’m trying to figure out if i need a ramp or not.

My roost is about 30 in off the ground, by what you said, they need 30 in horizontally in order to fly down? Is that correct?

Yes. With room to land.

Different birds will differ a bit -- my California Whites fly like helicopters -- but on average that's about right.

 

[aart]

I can't figure out how these people had goats and chickens together so successfully. Wish I'd paid more attention

How well do you know these people?
Are they someone you visit often or was it just a one time visual?
Just because you see goats and chickens apparently living together in harmony,
doesn't mean there aren't issues.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree, do not house goats in the same building, pretty much for Aart's reasons. Your challenge may be to deny the goats access to the chicken's coop, they can get through some pretty small openings.

I put both the nesting boxes and roosts up high. Probably about 3.5 feet.

That is not even close to high. One issue may be that chickens often like to sleep in the highest place available. You want your roosts noticeably higher than any other place you don't want them to sleep, like your nests. If the roosts are right next to the nests 6" higher can be noticeable. If across your 6' x 8' shed 12" should work. You don't want them sleeping in the nests when they start to lay, you don't want poopy eggs.

Some people really freak out at the thought of chickens sleeping above the nests. That does not bother me in the least as long as the nests are covered so the poop cannot go in the nests. I put a juvenile roost over my nests so the juveniles have a safe place to go when they are ready to roost and the adults won't let them onto the main roosts. I use the top of the nests as a droppings board when juveniles are up there. They are obviously higher than the nests. It works well for me.

I have EIGHT 10.5 week-old easter eggers. So far they don't seem to have any interest in exploring the roosts or nesting boxes, but they are also still adjusting.

You don't have adults which can change their behavior. And yours are brooder-raised, which is different from broody-raised. When no adults are around my brooder-raised chicks tend to start sleeping on the roosts at around 10 to 12 weeks old. I have had a group start as early as 5 weeks, I've had some go past 12 weeks but 10 to 12 is a good average. I think what my coop and roosts looks like plays into that. Each of us are unique and certainly do not get the same results. You just put them in so give them time.

Many people on this forum seem to think something is wrong if they aren't immediately roosting. They will be out there setting them on the roosts to train them to sleep on the roosts. I take a different approach. When they are ready they will roost. Until then they sleep where they want to sleep. As long as it is not in my nests and is somewhere predator safe I don't care where they sleep. They are safe and it won't hurt them.

I do have a climbing ladder, but am worried now that everything too high and could cause injury. Appreciate any thoughts on what easter eggers might prefer and what's the maximum height for safety.

Easter Eggers are not a breed, there are no standards for them. They can be any size though usually they are fairly small compared to other dual purpose breeds. You have obviously read about how a chicken can hurt it's legs or joints if it hops down from a high roost. That's possible but let's look at the rest of the story. Overly large birds like Brahma's, Jersey Giants, meat chickens, or chickens fed so they are large for their breed (like birds raised for show) can possibly hurt their legs like that. It is a real threat to them. But that is not much of a risk if they are not overly large for their breed. My birds are hatchery stock dual purpose like Orpington, Sussex, and Australorp, probably larger than your EE will be, depending on how you feed them. I do not feed them a high protein diet so they don't grow that large. They do need a decent clear flight and landing area but mine have no issues flying up and down from a 5' high roost. They could fly higher but I don't have my coop set up that way.

I've had several hens and even a full sized rooster once launch from that 5' high roost, fly about 8' forward, hang a hard left, fly out of my coop human door, and land in the run. Chickens are not great flyers but as long as they are not oversized they do OK. This is why for your probably not oversized EE's I don't consider 3-1/2 feet to be high at all.

I like my roosts to be high enough off of the coop floor so the chickens cannot reach the chickens perching up there. When I integrate new chickens I often find them on the roosts out of the reach of the others. It is a safe place they can go.

But there are reasons I don't want the roosts too high. One is the higher they are the more clear area they need to safely fly down. In New York you will want ventilation in the winter to help keep your coop dry but you don't want a cold wind hitting your chickens on the roosts. A good way to achieve this is to have your ventilation up high so any winds through the ventilation are above them when they are on the roosts. Also, a good time to check them for mites or to other issues or to work on them for other reasons is at night when they are on the roosts. They are easy to catch in the dark. So I want the roosts a convenient height for that.

We are always interested in seeing photos so we can see what you are working with. From what you have written I don't see anything to be concerned about, except those goats.