Roosts vs. nest box placement

[SandyRiverChick]

I've been reading through many threads on this subject but I'm still not resolved as my pullets (20 weeks and 24 weeks) are preferring to sleep in nest boxes. 2 Roosts are 2x4's, 1 is up higher than nest boxes, 1 is same. Please take a look and let me know what you think. Someone suggested that heavier breeds need ladders and wont jump? Mine are RIR's... THANKS!

 

[LynneP]

I think the problem with the 2 x4 roost near the platform is that there is no flight room, plus it should have the wide side up. The birds will bruise and collide. You could easily use the area above the nest boxes as a platform roost and scrape it clean daily, if there is access. You have big birds, so I'm wondering about head space for you, too, and ease of access for cleaning and other maintenance.

 

[Chooksaurus]

Quote:
My RIRs have a ladder made out of some tree branches, but I have also seen them go from the bottom rung straight up to the roost...nearly 3 feet, so they will jump to some extent.

 

[2txmedics]

wow, tight area...maybe they dont have the room for semi flight or to jump to get in a comfortable place. I had the same problem with mine wanting to roost...sleep big time in there nest boxes, I mean they would all crammed into one nest box on top...

this is when there babies...as you can see my problem was ONE..MY NEST BOXES ARE OPEN WHICH WAS A MAJOR PROBLEM...and TWO..THE ROOST WERE ALMOST EVEN WITH THE NEST BOXES...thus they all just at night all get into the nest boxes, this is nothing...here in the picture its only a few of them.

I had plently of room, but it was my frist coop and I didnt know...to solve the problem...in the daytime I placed chicken wire rolled up in the nest boxes at night time....so bascically I was covering them up....so they couldnt roost...in the daytime I would open them up And I boiled two hard boil eggs...I looked everywhere for golf balls or something couldnt find them...so I did boiled eggs...day time eggs in nest, night chicken wire to block it...now
well they still needed a place to roost and I guess those were too low for them...Im not sure, so I gathered branches of different sizes from the yard and anchored them to the coop and also tied to each other to make them sturdy...so they wouldnt swing much. NOW THEY ROOST ON THE NEW AREA AND LOVE IT!!!!

WHICH BY THE WAY IS OVER ALL THE TOP OF THE COOP....AND MY COOP IS MADE THAT ALL ACROSS THE TOP, ITS OPEN, WITH CHICKEN WIRE, SO THEY CAN ROOST AND SEE OUT AT NIGHT!!!! YOU ALSO SEE A ROOST LADDER TO THE FAR RIGHT...THEY USE THIS TO GET TO THE BRANCHES, THEY WONT SLEEP HERE THEY WANT TO SEE OUT!!!

LOOK AT THE FRONT OF THE COOP, ALL ALONG THE FRONT OF THE OUTSIDE...THAT IS WHERE THERE ROOST ARE:

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Wowee, that's a lot of stuff in not much space. They may not be able to easily get TO the roosts (or back down again, which is often trickier for them). You don't need anything like 4 nest boxes for 6 hens, so one way of reducing crowding would be to get down to just two, or one large, nestbox. I would very strongly recommend that. Also remove unneeded roosts that are just getting in the way of access to other roosts -- 6 hens need something on the order of 4-6' of roost.

What dimensions are your coop - especially, how tall is it? I am wondering whether it might be tall enough to change the top tier of nestboxes into a droppings board with a roost a few inches above it -- would you still have enough headroom? If so, that would be the ideal plan. Make sure that the droppings board overhangs the front of the nestboxes by an inch or three, and in such a tiny coop you will need to scrape off the droppings board daily.

If there is not enough headroom over the lower nestboxes to permit a roost up there, then I would suggest replacing the top nestboxes with just a flat piece of plywood with a narrow lip to retain bedding (lip should hinge down or something to facilitate cleaning) and let them use that as a 'step' to get to the roost which is at the upper right of your photo. Remove the other roosts.

Whatever you do, you are almost certainly going to have to go out there with a headlamp after dark for at least a few days and manually PUT the hens on the roost. Once you do this for a while though they will learn and will begin to put themselves to bed there on their own.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[SandyRiverChick]

Thanks for the replies. Here's a better look at our setup. This new henhouse is a work in progress so all the info is awesome. The doghouse dimensions are 39" wide, 43" deep, and 41" high at peak of roof. The first night of using this new setup the top tier was two big roofless nest boxes and we had two tree branches for roosts. (you can see one of them on the lower right in the original picture of this thread). That night four of them slept in the top tier nest boxes and we think two of them used one of the tree branch roosts (as there was alot of poop under it in the morning). We wanted them to ALL use the two roosts and had read that 2x4s work better than branches so we replaced one branch with a 2x4 (seen on left in original picture of thread) and then added an even higher 2x4 roost above the lower branch roost. We also added a slanted roof to the top right nest box (seen in picture above) to discourage them from sleeping there and removed bedding from the upper left nest box to offer this as a perch platform (reducing the number of nest boxes from 5 to 4.) The result last night was 5 hens on the top tier (one even laid partly on the slanted roof we just installed and partly on one of her sister's back), and one slept in the lower middle nest box (which none of them slept in the first night). NONE of them used the 2x4s at all. Tonight I think we will take your advice about offering them just the three lower nest boxes, remove the slanted roof and the middle divider on the top tier to make it a flat plywood platform, move the left 2x4 in the original picture over the platform as a roost, remove the lower right branch completely and leave the really high 2x4 on the right as another roost option. Hopefully that will give them enough jump/flight room to move around and get settled. The only thing I'm not sure of is, is it better to have a roost 2x4 a few inches above the platform (which makes it impossible to actually lay ON the platform), or just let them not roost and actually sleep directly on the 2nd tier platform? Thanks again for all the input and continued suggestions.

 

[cmom]

I would take out the roost by the nest boxes. If you need the roost room then put it higher.

 

[2txmedics]

cute little house....but they do need more room..remember roosting...then waking in the morning...that big stretch we all give...spreading there wings...

There is always something we all might change about our coops...we learn as we go....but I do like your little house.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

So here is where we are today. It may be that we are totaly resolved, but I'm not sure. We cleared the roof of the nest boxes (I think this goes along with your great suggestions Pat) so that it is just a platform and put a 2x2 bar on the edge for gripping (not in pic yet), hopping up to the roosts. Then we moved a roost (2x4) about 4 inches over the platform and left the other roost in the far back. At 39" each, that's a total of a 13"/bird to roost IF they use both (now plenty of jumping room between both). Results last night were that they all got on the 1 roost - so that's a little more than 6"/bird. They looked pretty crammed to me... I get the feeling though that they are not going to spread out to the other roost and prefer to cram together.

Our thoughts on this space as opposed to the fact that if we had even 1 more chicken we could easily use our large shed for a chicken house, that thing is huge. But I really think that so long as it is layed out with perfect use of space, the dog house is better. With a heat lamp in the highest point of the roof, it stays very warm in there for winter. I'll admit that I was suppose to have only 3 chickens and wound up with 6! I read alot of posts out here that smaller spaces when used only for sleeping and laying are fine and it does seem that they have a great routine. I also saw dog houses like ours, a frames, tractors, even smaller box type things, with 6 chickens. I assumed ours are pretty lucky/happy chickens. The house+36sq ft of run is nighttime lockup only and they can roost in the run if they want (they dont want). In the morning until laying time is over they have additional 500sq ft of dog kennel. Then from 2pm to when they put themselves to bed, they have 1 acre, roam the whole thing (free range) and seem to love it.

All that said, I appreciate ANY feedback on ANYTHING. I'm soliciting opinion, so it's all good. Tell me what you think about them crammed on the one roost. Should we move it back away from the doors a little maybe? Add another one really close to it and take out the back one? I think I give up on the one in the back..... Or if you really do think the dog house is too small for 6 chickens to sleep/lay in, please let us know.... Thanks!