Roosting....what age should this occur?

[Tellie29]

In my coop I currently have 9 laying hens (a little over a year old) and 12 chicks (6 - 6 week olds and 6 - 4 weeks olds. Of course my older girls roost on their bars, but I am curious as to what age the younger ones will start roosting on their own. The littles have been out in the coop for about 2 weeks now and spent the 1st week in a kennel inside the coop, but now they are free to roam about the coop and run as they wish. We are in Louisiana and are getting a good bit of rain at the moment, so last night when the big girls went to bed I sneaked in the coop and one by one put the 12 chicks onto the bottom roosting bar that none of the big girls uses. This morning 4 were still on the roosting bar and the rest were back on the ground sleeping. Should I continue placing them on the roosting bars each night until they get the idea or should I just let them sleep where they like until they decide to go up on their own. TIA for any advice and suggestions.

 

[BirdHead]

As soon as they can fly

Roughly after they shed those soft feathers