Roosting Battles continued

[crazychick26201]

Hi I posted in August about my chickens not wanting to roost together. They appeared to have resolved the problem but now that the weather has turned colder they are at it again. For a few weeks now my two new ones (now 8months old) are sleeping on the floor underneath the roost just at the top of the ramp where there is no bedding. When I go out at night and put them up on the roost they just get shoved off again. My concern is that the one at the bottom of the pecking order has started a molt and her neck is pretty bare except for pin feathers (she does not have mites and there is no feather picking- I have checked). Our nights are getting down into the teens and it is typical to have single digits where I live in the winter. Should I leave her alone to sleep where she is or should I continue to try to find a solution to this roosting problem? I have five hens and 6 ft of roost. I would appreciate any suggestions. This is my first winter trying to put new birds in my flock.

 

[bobbi-j]

They'll be fine. One of my older hens has just started molting (feathers on her one day, a nestbox full of feathers the next and she's looking quite scantily clad...) She roosts by herself up on a rafter of my coop. It's been in the single digits here all week. Chickens are great at adapting to their environments.

It might not hurt - if you have room - to put up another roost bar if you are that concerned about whether they roost or not. I have never worried about where my chickens sleep. They've all figured it out eventually.

 

[azygous]

I would also suggest you put up a second roosting perch or even a small, low, portable perch. Six feet for five hens isn't all that generous. Tempers flare when the late roosters try to get up and flapping wings knock the ones already there off or it's too crowded for the late roosters to find a place wide enough to accommodate their flapping wings.

My chickens have poop boards under the perches, and they hop onto those first, then they don't need to flap their way the next ten inches up onto the perch since it's then just a short hop up.

Another thing you can try, if adding a perch is not practical, is to install a couple of partitions along the perch. This helps separate the ones who are temperamental from the younger, more timid ones. It can really go a long way toward keeping the peace.