Roosting behavior

[put148]

Currently we have 4 hens and a rooster all roughly about 20 weeks old. This past week when I go to lock the door to the coop in the evening the rooster has been sitting below the hens on the poop board, previously he has been up on the roost with them. I guess I'm just worried that he's is gonna get poo'd all over. In the morning when we go to let them out and freshen food and water they are already moving around and can't tell if he is getting up at night or not. He doesn't look messy but just seems like he should take his spot on the roost with them. What do you think?

 

[Den in Penn]

Could be he is getting up at night. To find out you will either need a camera or go out there after they have roosted for a while. If he really is sleeping on the poop board, maybe he has become uncomfortable on the roost. Or perhaps it is just one of those unexplainable things they do.

 

[centrarchid]

I occasionally have dominiques with roosters especially inclined to roost below others where they sleep in poopy-rain. The poop does not seem to stick to feather must at all. I still want birds to roost up as general management practice to ensure they out of easy stupid predator reach (oppossums / my feet in dark) and easy to rapidly count during nightly lockdown.