Roosts??

[Leah and peeps]

Hi everyone,

I just finished building my coop and i am just putting in the roosts. There just one itsy bitsy problem... i dont know what size of wood the roosts should be made from. 2x4 's ?
or is that to big.. or small? What do you use? Thanks!

ETA: I forgot, How high above the ground should they be, how high?

 

[PetChickenBoo]

Check out the Learning Center on this site--they have a blurb about roosts. You can use a 2x4 if you live in a cold climate(it makes them sit on their feet in the winter and keeps them warm). You can also use a 2" diameter board(round the edges) or branch. I'm just finishing my coop and I think I'm going to use 2x4's as we have some pretty cold days/nights here at times.

 

[Leah and peeps]

We are from Ontario Canada so yeah, we deffinitly have some cold winters! So i guess i will be using 2x4's. Will they be sitting of the 2" or the 4" part?

 

[Leah and peeps]

oh and yeah, what about the height?

 

[WilczenskiFarm]

We have them sitting on the 2" part in the coop, and we have them on the 4" part outside the coop in their run... so on wintery, snowy days, they still get up there on the roost to take a look around!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I just use tree branches but many people use 2x4's. The theory is that they will sit on their feet in cold weather and keep them warm if they set on the wide side.

As far as height of the roosts, that depends a bit on your coop. Most chickens like to roost on the highest thing they can get to, so your roosts need to be higher than anything else in you coop, especially nest boxes. But your roosts need to be as low as you can make them. It's worse with the heavier breeds but a chicken can hurt itself getting down from a roost. When it jumps down, it can injure its legs when it hits the floor. It does not happen often with any breed and hardly ever with the smaller breeds, but it can happen. The other possible problem is that chickens are not tremendously graceful flyers, especially the heavy breeds. They normally fly down from the roost and the higher the roost is the more horizontal clear distance they need to get down. If space in the coop is fairly tight they can bang into walls, nest boxes, feeders, or waterers and hurt themselves, especially if they are coming down from a high roost. So to answer your question, you need to put the roosts as low as you can and still have them the highest thing in your coop.

If it helps any, mine are about 4 feet high.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Quote:
Yup! What Ridge said!

Hey Ridge, I was in NW Arkansas this past weekend. Little bitty place called Winslow.Picked up my new puppy there

 

[aussieheelr]

we used 2x4 with the 4" side up as most people said to use... but they prefure the rafters that have the 2" side up.

figures.