should i insist they sit on roost

[aliprowl]

Similar problem - I have 11 hens and one rooster, and I've been diligently moving them onto the roost every night for over a week now (they are 13 qwwka old). I have one long 2x4 roost with plenty of space for all, and a ladder on one end to help them up. Four of them, sometimes five, will roost on their own; two of them cram themselves into the corner and are basically almost on top of each other. The others all congregate across the coop on top of the nesting box unit, which is basically a big box with four nesting boxes built into it. This big unit is right against the wall under a window, so they all crowd up there in a pile, pressed up against the hardware cloth of the open window. They used to ALL cram onto this box until I began moving the to the roosts. I'm not sure what the attraction is - sleeping in a pile, the open window, or what. Ideas, anyone??? Then I began thinking that once the big gals were situated on the roost, maybe nobody else wants to climb the ladder and take the spots farther down the long roost, since they have to walk past the alpha females?
Do I just leave them alone and let them work it out? Add a second ladder farther down? Aaargh!

 

[kathyinmo]

I have this problem too. I have 44 birds, 11 weeks old. They have been in their big luxury home for 6 weeks. Plenty of space, and plenty of roost area. (See my coop, on my BYC page). MOST of them roost, however, there are about 8 - 10 of them that pile up right at the doorway. They argue and haggle for about 30 mins every night, and continue to sleep there.

Should I put them up on the roost, or leave them be?

 

[LaSombra]

Quote:
you might be right about them not wanting to go past the alpha females. Could you just move the ladder so it's them that have to move further down and then all would eventually use the ladder? I don't have a ladder for mine. They're low enough down and I have a lower roost to use like a step up for them that they can use (See my coop page on the BYC page thing for pics). They seem to like to hop up onto them like that.

 

[aliprowl]

And now it seems my great theory about the alpha females might be my imagination; the rooster is huddling with the littler ones on top of the nesting boxes! maybe they just do not want to line up. when I put them on the roost, they seem to have a hard time finding their balance, though it is a 2x4 with broad side up so they can sit on their feet in winter. I put them in place very carefully, but it still seems to cause much anxiety. maybe the roost is too high; think it is 3 ft. off the ground, or 3.5. Ugh. If I move the ladder to the center, then I have to move my feeder & waterer. But maybe that is the way to go; that way the girls can file off to either side.
Do not understand the piling up to sleep. Waiting for suffocated victims of the pile.