Roosting in the rafters?

[babsterh]

Does anyone else have this problem? Our girls have 3 very nice roosting bars, ample space for the 14 girls. Yet, they all seem to risk their lives nightly to sleep on the roof rafters. Getting up and down seems to be quite laborious for them...I'm afraid they'll get hurt. We've had a few fall from the rafters, in the summer I don't use shavings in their coop, just a linoleum floor with a dusting of powdered PDZ. Comments are welcome!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Almost all of my chickens have tried to get as high in the building as possible. Some of the rafters are 10' high. The higher they get, the safer they feel - for good reason. When I have a bird that decides to sleep in a tree, they go up about 20'.

I would be very concerned about the landing. Why don't you use shaving? It makes cleaning up/absorbing feces much easier.
About 4" of shavings makes for a soft landing.

 

[Hokum Coco]

A chicken wire ceiling might be the answer.

 

[Folly's place]

Many of my birds roost in the coop rafters, eight feet up. ALWAYS have bedding in the coop! Several inches of shavings and stuff is a much safer floor for all of them. Mary

 

[aart]

Does anyone else have this problem? Our girls have 3 very nice roosting bars, ample space for the 14 girls. Yet, they all seem to risk their lives nightly to sleep on the roof rafters. Getting up and down seems to be quite laborious for them...I'm afraid they'll get hurt. We've had a few fall from the rafters, in the summer I don't use shavings in their coop, just a linoleum floor with a dusting of powdered PDZ. Comments are welcome!

Ditto Dat^^

 

[greenfeathers]

mine used to fight each other for the rafter space and the losers were stuck on the regular roost bar. They seem to have sorted out who goes where now. They have no issue getting up there or down. I keep pine shavings on the floor. They jump on the lower roosts to get up to the rafter but to come down it's just a couple flaps of the wing and they are on the ground and out the pop door. I let them be. At least they've moved on from the pile on the floor when they first moved to the coop.

 

[TerryH]

Ditto Dat^^

Ditto the ditto. I'd personally want to discourage them from being that high. I would fear leg trouble etc... over the long run.

 

[Folly's place]

Twenty plus years of having chickens, both large and small, and no problems with injuries coming off the rafters. Some like it up there, and some don't. Mary

 

[Folly's place]

I might be concerned if I had 20 lb. capons, but then they would never make it up there in the first place. Mary

 

[TerryH]

Twenty plus years of having chickens, both large and small, and no problems with injuries coming off the rafters.  Some like it up there, and some don't.  Mary

You have shavings in your coop. The OP has a naked linoleum floor with PDZ sprinkled on it.