Roost perchs in Aframe?

[4acresNachick]

Hi. My husband and I are new to raising chickens and we built an A-frame coop with 11 nest boxes like a pyramid on the back wall with ramps and ledges leading up to the top box in front on the boxes. now I am wondering where to put the roost perches. I was thinking of running them along the side walls at a couple of different heights with ramps up to each or just securing branches in a couple of places that way I can change it up for them every once in awhile. I have RIR chicks that wont be ready for the coop for another month but I want it all set for when they are. The coop at the center is seven feet tall with a foot print of 7ftX7ft. I need to leave myself room for cleaning and such so I am looking for opinions.

 

[FireTigeris]

You gotta put the roost higher then the boxes, else they will perch in/on the next boxes and 'foul' the boxes underneath them.

picts or diagram would help please.

 

[4acresNachick]

I haven't posted enough to upload anything yet. if you are looking at the back wall of the coop you see the nest boxes until about 5ft up then to the peek it's open until the ceiling. the boxes have a roof over each so if a bird stands above the droppings wont go in the one below and in front of each row of boxes is a four inch wide walkway type space that connects to a ramp that leads up to the next level. As I am typing I realize a pic would be so much easier to explain. Sorry. Hopefully soon!

 

[Mervin]

Quote:
First off, how many chickens are in the coop? At 7x7, there shouldn't be so many birds that you'd need 11 nests ( a nest per 4-5 birds seems to work out). For instance, I keep a dozen in a 8x8 A-Frame and have 3 nests. They all use the same one any way. A couple like to borrow down into the litter to lay.

If the nests are higher than the roosts they might try to sleep in the nest, not necessarily on top of them. They will soil them up and you'll get more, really dirty eggs that way.

My setup sounds similar to yours. I have a long roost that runs length wise at about 2ft high. That way I can leave the ventilation open up high without the draft necessarily blowing across their backs while they roost. My nests are 12" diameter concrete form tubes that sit on a platform about 10" of the ground. They can't roost on top of the tubes and they're just a hair lower than the roost itself. It seems to work for us, your mileage may very of course.

 

[ChooksChick]

Honestly, the birds will use only one or two nests, anyway, but I like to leave lots of choices, too!

The big thing to remember is that you need to use a 2" x 4" for the roosts, and they need to be wide-side up for the chickens' big feet, as they aren't gripping birds like parrots. Also, you need to be absolutely certain that no predator can reach in to where they roost, or they will be pulled out bit-by-bit. It's a terrible truth.

I'd love to see a pic- I can post it if you want to email me chookschick at gmail dot com.

 

[4acresNachick]

Thanks for the help. I will try to get some pics on. I know we did put a lot of boxes in the coop. We were working on the idea that we'd need one for each chicken just in case they didn't want to share. We didn't realize at the time that that is not usually the case.
7 chickens total will live in the coop come winter. We don't even have them yet. We are trying to get the coop done before the RIR chicks we are getting are ready to live outside. We have more then a month before that so plenty of time for tweaking if need be. we had to use material on hand so it's made of hemlock on the inside and will have metal roofing for sides of the a-frame. the other question I had was: is painting the outside that's not covered by metal ok for the chickens if so what exterior paint would be good or does it matter? If not paint what else is good for the outside keeping in mind we have a low budget for the coop itself. We are spending a lot of our budget on predator protection. We are also attaching a large run off the front with a door into the coop that can be closed at night. We are using Hardware cloth(I think it is called) on the outside of the run and into the ground about 18 inches. Foxes are our biggest problem around here. The Floor is solid wood and we put it on gravel. We are going to dig a ditch around the base and bury more wire to prevent any digging under the coop as well. Let
me know what you think. We are open to suggestions. We are in Maine so durability is key. Long winters, lots of snow.

 

[FireTigeris]

try posting pictures anytime now...

it might work now.

 

[Mervin]

I've painted with regular exterior latex and "ranch" paint. I've not seen any ill effects.

I've also used PT lumber which many will caution against. To date, I've not seen any chickens peck at it. I wouldn't do that around a horse or a goat, but that's a different matter.