Roosting bars

[knjinnm]

Search BYC for Poop hammock to save yourself cleanup time. IMO your coop is way overloaded with birds and primed for a disease out break.
Joe

 

[Ravishaw]

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos...1805172288_296982217288_4810486_7314910_n.jpg

HOLY SMOKES!

THAT'S A LOT OF FUZZY BUTTS!

I love this picture. If you lived closer I'd come out, light it and do a big print. I LOVE IT!

 

[cottage19]

The one "mistake" we made when we built the coop was putting the roosts too close to the wall - We have 7 hens but they all wanted to roost on the same board and we ended up with poop running down the wall. We took it apart and moved the roost about 20 inches away from the wall. Everyone is happy now - the poop board catches most of the poop and the hens didn't notice the adjustment. Our coop is spacious for 7 hens - an 8x8 walk-in attached to the barn and we tend to keep it very tidy - seems like one of us is always out puttering in the coop or just visiting the girls...

 

[MamaChic21]

Quote:

My face impression is the same

Fuzzy butts

 

[elmo]

Keep in mind that the area under any roost is going to get pretty poopy, so don't put the feeder or waterer under there! I use shelf supports to hold up my roost as well as the droppings trays underneath (which are repurposed plastic boot trays). I covered the shelf supports with the same planed and sanded 2" by 1" boards (just right for my small bantams), and I find every night that the higher ranking chickens stake out spots on these shelf supports. I don't really know why, but perhaps they like being able to roost right next to the wall?

 

[Attila the Hen]

My roost is 6 inches from the floor. I had it a higher and they wouldn't get on it for some reason and sometimes they would miss when jumping onto it. It was only about 12 inches off the floor. Now they love their roost.

 

[Gwen]

The roost is going to be toward the back of the coop and I want to be able to rake underneath it easily without the bottom rung getting in the way of the rake. Yes, I am thinking of a ladder style. How far apart do I need to make each rung in order for them not to poop on one another? I mean how far as in how far below and also how far out away from the one above, if that makes sense.

Can someone tell me why the ladder style would not be a good idea? I have 2x4's and am going to position them so the flat part is the 4" part.

The coop is 4x6. Right now we only have 5 chickens but may get a couple more next summer.

 

[MTopPA_18707]

Gwen, et. al.


As for making the bottom roost high enough to get the rake underneath, you might want to consider using hinges to mount the top edge of the roost the wall.

The bottom legs just sit on the floor.

When it's time to clean underneath . . . just lift up the bottom edge of the roost and tie it to the ceiling.

Here are some pic's .


Xriva

 

[Gwen]

That's not how my husband wants to do it He has some metal brackets he's going to mount to the wall and the wooden roosts will slide into the brackets. I don't want to have to take the roosts out to rake. I want to just be able to lean into the coop, extend the rake, and clean.

 

[gsim]

Quote:

See 'My BYC Page' for ideas.