My flock's coop is about 1/3 of a barn. Coop has the nesting boxes, roosts and food, water.
The other 2/3 of barn is where they hang out to avoid the heat or cold. I leave the barn doors slid open all summer long during the day, rain or shine. They free range 8-8. In winter they are mostly in the barn since we get a lot of snow.(although pop door is open most days).
I currently have :
6 laying hens, and one rooster (all about 1 yr old)
4 "teenagers" hand raised, 14 weeks old ---- 3 pullets 1 cockerel
9 "tweens", hen raised, 10 weeks old ----4 pullets, 5 cockerels
15 preschoolers, hand raised, 6 weeks old---all pullets
The 6 hens are my original and roost on the original main roost.
Rooster joined them in Feb, and roosts with them (in the middle).
4 teenagers roost on side roost
8 tweens roost together,(in the nursery, where they were raised by their mom/shares wall with main coop with a chicken door that is always open) but 1 of the pullets likes to roost on top of the window frame sill (about 9 feet high)
15 preschoolers like to roost on my table, (not in the coop- but located in the main barn area where I keep feed, empty containers etc.)
Each night at around 8pm as the preschools are done roosting, I pick each up and move to an appropriate roost. I did this for 2 weeks, but they would never stay. They'd fly down and huddle on the floor in a corner. So... this week I started moving them to another roost (really just the edge of a half wall for the chicken "nursery"). Ive been doing this 6 days, and tonight when i went in 4 were there, all the rest were roosting on my table again, or still eating.
I have 4 roosts in the coop. 2 arent being occupied at all. How do I encourage all the birds to roost in the coop? Roosts are varied heights, the lowest being about 2 feet- highest about 4.5 feet. They are 20 inches apart, so no one can peck you from a different roost. It doesnt bug me that the tweens roost in the nursery- Im assuming its becasue so many are cockerels and need to keep distance from the main rooster?? But these damn preschoolers are driving me nuts. Shall I just remove my table for a few weeks? I was resisting that because I use it for my coffee, cell phone, the eggs, you name it. But this moving them one by one is nuts. (although it does give me some snuggle time)
The other 2/3 of barn is where they hang out to avoid the heat or cold. I leave the barn doors slid open all summer long during the day, rain or shine. They free range 8-8. In winter they are mostly in the barn since we get a lot of snow.(although pop door is open most days).
I currently have :
6 laying hens, and one rooster (all about 1 yr old)
4 "teenagers" hand raised, 14 weeks old ---- 3 pullets 1 cockerel
9 "tweens", hen raised, 10 weeks old ----4 pullets, 5 cockerels
15 preschoolers, hand raised, 6 weeks old---all pullets
The 6 hens are my original and roost on the original main roost.
Rooster joined them in Feb, and roosts with them (in the middle).
4 teenagers roost on side roost
8 tweens roost together,(in the nursery, where they were raised by their mom/shares wall with main coop with a chicken door that is always open) but 1 of the pullets likes to roost on top of the window frame sill (about 9 feet high)
15 preschoolers like to roost on my table, (not in the coop- but located in the main barn area where I keep feed, empty containers etc.)
Each night at around 8pm as the preschools are done roosting, I pick each up and move to an appropriate roost. I did this for 2 weeks, but they would never stay. They'd fly down and huddle on the floor in a corner. So... this week I started moving them to another roost (really just the edge of a half wall for the chicken "nursery"). Ive been doing this 6 days, and tonight when i went in 4 were there, all the rest were roosting on my table again, or still eating.
I have 4 roosts in the coop. 2 arent being occupied at all. How do I encourage all the birds to roost in the coop? Roosts are varied heights, the lowest being about 2 feet- highest about 4.5 feet. They are 20 inches apart, so no one can peck you from a different roost. It doesnt bug me that the tweens roost in the nursery- Im assuming its becasue so many are cockerels and need to keep distance from the main rooster?? But these damn preschoolers are driving me nuts. Shall I just remove my table for a few weeks? I was resisting that because I use it for my coffee, cell phone, the eggs, you name it. But this moving them one by one is nuts. (although it does give me some snuggle time)
