I'm sure this has been asked before but I can't find it. I have an 8x10 coop that I am getting close to finishing. I have the nesting boxes done and they come up to right about 34 inches off the floor. My plan is to put two sets of roosts on either side of thw window which is in my end wall. The question I have is how far from the wall do the roosts need to be and since I will be putting multiple roosts in how much distance between the roosts.
It depend, but make sure the one up high don't poop on the one below. If you have heavy breed, they don't like the roost too high either and can cause injure.
You just have to make sure that the roosts are higher than the nest boxes or they will sleep in them.I allowed 10" from the wall for the highest roost and then moved out ( horizontally ) 12"-14" with the rest of them and it works fine.
About a foot is the minimum space needed from roost to wall or between roosts. A little more space is better if possible, cause roosting time is the time to establish social dominance and there's often a lot of fuss when going to bed.
In my experience, the roosting bar can be quite close to a wall. One foot being a reasonable minimum. I installed a second bar that was a foot higher than the first one, and it was quite close to the wall, maybe one foot. All the chicken proceeded from the lower bar to the higher bar, even though they were quite close to to wall. Furthermore, they don't even bother to turn around. They sleep all night with their beaks two inches from the wall.
