Roost height?

[ErikaV7]

Hiya!

We just built our first coop and it's great, but I have some questions about the interior. We only have three chicks right now and a 20 sq. foot coop. The run will be about the same. However, how high does their roost need to be from the floor? Should their nesting boxes be on the ground or built into the wall? I keep seeing all sorts of different designs so I want to make sure we have it right.

Any other tips for the interior would be much appreciated!

Erika

 

[4 the Birds]

Oh.... about 3' high would be good. A ramp or hop up ladder would be nice the birds so that they do not flap up and have big hops down. Put your nesting boxes below the roost bars. They can be at floor level or up around say 18". External boxes are VERY nice to have.

 

[Egrant97]

" Put your nesting boxes below the roost bars"

What does this mean?

 

[DeerFangRanch]

You want the nesting boxes lower than the roosts.

 

[Egrant97]

shoot, i guess i have to look up what a "roost" is. thank you!

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are very few rules on any of this. Most of it is just personal preference. That’s why you see so many different things. Practically anything works.

The one rule is that the roosts need to be higher than anyplace you don’t want the chickens to sleep. Chickens like to sleep as high as they can get. It’s an instinctive thing for protection against predators. They also poop a lot at night. Most of us don’t like poop on the eggs so it’s generally considered better to have the roosts higher than the nests so they don’t poop in the nests.

There are some things to consider. A lot of this depends on how you build the nests or what you use for nests. People with bad backs often don’t want to bend over too far to get the eggs. You’ll see these raised a bit. Some people like them on the floor. A potential problem with this is that the chickens might scratch trash from the coop floor into the nest unless the nest has high sides. If the nests are too close to the floor (remember to allow for the bedding) Mommy Mouse might think that under it is a good safe place to raise a family. Chickens eat mice so if they have enough room to get under there, Mommy Mouse will look elsewhere to make a nest. If it’s kind of dark and protected under the nests a hen may think that is a good place to lay an egg, so I think you need to be able to see under there. If you are going to let a broody hen hatch chicks in the nests, some people worry about them being too high off the floor. There are lots of different reasons to do different things. They all work so it boils down to personal preference.

I do suggest you put the roosts as low as reasonably possible. Set your nest height first then make the roost maybe a foot higher. Chickens will often jump/fly up a whole bunch of feet so it’s not so much a problem of them getting up there unless you have Silkies that can’t fly or your coop is so small they can’t spread their wings. It’s them getting off that makes it better for the roosts to not be too high. Some people worry about them hurting their legs when they jump down. I don’t worry about that with mine because mine use their wings to come down reasonably gently. Sometimes my full sized chickens fly forward about 8 feet, hang a left and fly out the coop door to land in the run outside. To me the issue is that the higher the roost the more clear room they need inside the coop to fly down. You don’t want them banging into nests, feeders, waterers, walls, or anything else. So just make the roosts a little higher than the nests but as low as you reasonably can.

Good luck!

 

[DeerFangRanch]

shoot, i guess i have to look up what a "roost" is. thank you!

For a full size chicken, and 2 x 4 on it's side (wide side across).

 

[ErikaV7]

Thanks so much. This is very helpful!

 

[salt and pepper]

Mine are 1' and 15" I like the higher one better, because it is easier to clean out underneath it, and it makes the coop look, and feel larger. I wouldn't put it higher then 2' though. If you're wondering, I don't have nest boxes, what's the point in making them if they don't lay in there anyway?

 

[BettyJo]

Very helpful suggestions. This is our 2nd coop, so trying to get everything right for chicken safety and easy cleaning. The interior is 14' X 7' with one man door in center of long wall. 2 windows, one on each side of door. The design is going to look like an old western town store front. With this specific exterior, I'm trying to figure out my floor plan for 17 chickens. I'm leaning towards the large Rubbermaid tubs with lids for nesting boxes. Seems they would be easiest to keep clean. A poop tray makes a lot of sense too. Thank you!