Roosting: Weird, Stupid, or Normal

[ohkimba]

So I'm coming late to this discussion but....my chickens (buff & lavender Orpingtons, black Australorps, dark Brahmas) are 7 months old and STILL won't roost.

I blame myself: they were in a large run (with a covered section) until I could finish their coop. They did have a nice branch in there to use as a roost, but they ignored it. Now they're in their new Taj Mahal coop with a lovely (if I do say so myself) set of roosting bars, yet 15 of them cram together in a corner under the nesting boxes while one lone hen roosts in front of the nesting boxes (where there's also a bar).

I've set them on the roosting bars, and a few will hang out there for a while, but then they scoot back under the nesting boxes.

And, oh yeah, they're ignoring the nesting boxes, too.

I presume this is simply a function of the fact that I moved them to a new home and they're still figuring out what to make of it.

Honestly, I don't care if they end up sleeping in a pile under the nesting boxes forever --it's Minnesota, so it's COLD, and a puddle huddle may be the warmest way to sleep-- I just want to make sure I'm not missing some key point of chicken husbandry!

And, oh yeah, I'd like them to go back to using their nesting boxes...

 

[6BeachChicks]

So I'm coming late to this discussion but....my chickens (buff & lavender Orpingtons, black Australorps, dark Brahmas) are 7 months old and STILL won't roost.

I blame myself: they were in a large run (with a covered section) until I could finish their coop. They did have a nice branch in there to use as a roost, but they ignored it. Now they're in their new Taj Mahal coop with a lovely (if I do say so myself) set of roosting bars, yet 15 of them cram together in a corner under the nesting boxes while one lone hen roosts in front of the nesting boxes (where there's also a bar).

I've set them on the roosting bars, and a few will hang out there for a while, but then they scoot back under the nesting boxes.

And, oh yeah, they're ignoring the nesting boxes, too.

I presume this is simply a function of the fact that I moved them to a new home and they're still figuring out what to make of it.

Honestly, I don't care if they end up sleeping in a pile under the nesting boxes forever --it's Minnesota, so it's COLD, and a puddle huddle may be the warmest way to sleep-- I just want to make sure I'm not missing some key point of chicken husbandry!

And, oh yeah, I'd like them to go back to using their nesting boxes...

People just don’t want to clean up the poop in the nests, and they might poop on someone in a pile. maybe if you have mites/lice in the next box then it’s a bad idea. But otherwise, it’s ok if you are fine with it.

 

[MTKitty]

So I'm coming late to this discussion but....my chickens (buff & lavender Orpingtons, black Australorps, dark Brahmas) are 7 months old and STILL won't roost.

I blame myself: they were in a large run (with a covered section) until I could finish their coop. They did have a nice branch in there to use as a roost, but they ignored it. Now they're in their new Taj Mahal coop with a lovely (if I do say so myself) set of roosting bars, yet 15 of them cram together in a corner under the nesting boxes while one lone hen roosts in front of the nesting boxes (where there's also a bar).

I've set them on the roosting bars, and a few will hang out there for a while, but then they scoot back under the nesting boxes.

And, oh yeah, they're ignoring the nesting boxes, too.

I presume this is simply a function of the fact that I moved them to a new home and they're still figuring out what to make of it.

Honestly, I don't care if they end up sleeping in a pile under the nesting boxes forever --it's Minnesota, so it's COLD, and a puddle huddle may be the warmest way to sleep-- I just want to make sure I'm not missing some key point of chicken husbandry!

And, oh yeah, I'd like them to go back to using their nesting boxes...

To offer you hope, since that post, two or three of the 17 are using the roosts (not consistently but I’ll take it). Three or four of them actually perch on the piece of 1x8 I have in front of the door to keep the deep bedding from falling out every time I open the door. Two are using one nest box. Everyone else is still huddled in the corner.

Once it gets cold(er) at night, I expect they will all go back into the pile. Chickens!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

When you put them on the roosts, is it dark? If it is, they should stay there since they don't see well enough to move. If they wake up on the roosts in the morning, say three or four days in a row, I'd bet they'll start parking themselves up there on their own. That's been our experience anyway.

 

[629864]

We put perches up in their brooder early on. Here they are at 4 weeks in early May, but they were hopping up on perches by a week and a half or two old. They had no trouble transitioning to the coop perches when they made the move .

View attachment 2863090

Jun 2, shortly before the move to the coop (just over 7 weeks):
View attachment 2863107

Moving in day! Early June - it rained a LOT here and delayed our coop building a bit, so they were kinda big when we put them in the coop. The run was not yet complete and they spent their days under the hardware cloth wrapped trampoline and their nights back in the coop. I sure was glad to have them out of the house!
View attachment 2863112

We did the same....same dog crates too with stick perches from 1 week old. The chicks we raised like this roosted from just a few weeks old. And they all start running towards the henhouse at dusk to voluntarily spend the night inside.The laying hens we bought fully grown ...well half of them roost inside their hehouse, half in the trees, and half huddled in bushes or the floor of the henhouse. When I tried to usher them all into the henhouse at night, it turned into utter panicked chaos. They'd always been fully free range with no structure, so trying to force structure on them now was pointless. I want them free range, but was hoping they'd roost safely inside the henhouse at night. Happy is preferable to stressed though, so I Ieave them be to decide for themselves.

 

[Iluveggers]

Ours finally started roosting at about 15 weeks. We widened the bars from 2x2 to 2x4 and that night they started roosting. Maybe they needed more foot room!

 

[MTKitty]

Ours finally started roosting at about 15 weeks. We widened the bars from 2x2 to 2x4 and that night they started roosting. Maybe they needed more foot room!

Hmmm, I wonder if that might be the reason. One roost, I think I can easily modify - the one in front of the nest boxes. The other, three tier roost, I might need to work on. Thanks for the tip!

 

[MadamContrary]

My fully grown birds still cuddle pile half of the time. Especially my EE Sunflower, she still tries to sleep underneath the other birds like a chick. Most of the time she just shoves her head under her neighbor (much to thier annoyance). The other night I couldn't even see her until I pulled out the flashlight to do a headcount. 4 birds all smashed together.

 

[Wendy Bee]

We did the same....same dog crates too with stick perches from 1 week old. The chicks we raised like this roosted from just a few weeks old. And they all start running towards the henhouse at dusk to voluntarily spend the night inside.The laying hens we bought fully grown ...well half of them roost inside their hehouse, half in the trees, and half huddled in bushes or the floor of the henhouse. When I tried to usher them all into the henhouse at night, it turned into utter panicked chaos. They'd always been fully free range with no structure, so trying to force structure on them now was pointless. I want them free range, but was hoping they'd roost safely inside the henhouse at night. Happy is preferable to stressed though, so I Ieave them be to decide for themselves.

Do you have any roosts in a protected run they may take a shine to? On summer nights ours will sometimes opt for the run roost instead of the coop roosts:

 

[MTKitty]

Do you have any roosts in a protected run they may take a shine to? On summer nights ours will sometimes opt for the run roost instead of the coop roosts:

My flock aren’t allowed to browse the site because they would see some of the really nice set ups and demand a Taj Ma-coop. They have a plain old chicken house set inside a yard. Roosts are inside the house. The yard has a couple of native shrubs for cover and a few bales of hay for a wind break.

They’re country-ghetto chickens.