It is really normal for chicks to sleep on the floor until they are ready to roost. I’ve had some brooder raised chicks start roosting at 5 weeks. I’ve had some not start roosting until after 12 weeks. Some people on this forum have posted that theirs took 18 weeks or more. They will start roosting when they are ready. So I would not get all that excited about them not roosting yet.
But there is something else that could be going on. I’ve had it happen a lot with both broody raised chicks and brooder raised chicks. Older chickens, practically always hens, can be really brutal to younger chickens on the roosts. This does not happen all the time, but it’s usually a hen fairly low in the adult pecking order that will leave her normal roosting place so she can brutalize younger chickens. It’s her way of maintaining her place in the pecking order a little longer. The younger chickens will sometimes leave the roosts to find a safer roosting place.
When the chicks mature enough to establish their place in the pecking order, they move back to the roosts. This can vary with individual chickens, but this is usually somewhere around 20 to 22 weeks old. I’ve seen it with chicks as young as 15 weeks, but I’ve also seen some much, much older. They don’t all mature at the same rate.
These “safer” places might be on top of the nesting boxes, in the nesting boxes, or maybe all the way back on the floor. I had one group that actually started roosting outside the coop. It’s usually the highest place they can find that is away from the older hens. I put up an additional roost a little lower than my main roosts and a bit away from then for this reason. It keeps them out of the nesting boxes.
I’ve also had chicks sleep in the nesting boxes as they transition to sleeping on the roosts. Usually when they leave the floor they go straight to the roosts, but I have had some that slept in the nesting boxes or on the nesting boxes during that transition. That phase usually just lasts a few days, but I have had it last longer. When I lock them up at night, I move any that are in the nesting boxes to the lower roosts I have special for them. Most of them get the message pretty fast, but some take longer.
I don’t know what is going on with yours, nor do I know what your coop or roosts look like. If you can, I’d suggest giving them enough roost space so they can get away from the older hens, then place them on the roosts after dark and using as little light *** you can. Once a couple of them get the idea and start sleeping on the roosts, the rest usually follow pretty quickly.
You’ll get different opinions on what is too high for a roost. For many reasons, I suggest keeping the roost as low as practical. That means the roost needs to be noticeably higher than anything you don’t want them roosting on. Depending on your coop and layout, this could be 6” to a foot. But don’t build it any higher than you have to so you can achieve this noticeably higher. We all have different coops and different layouts. Our nests are at different heights. There is no one specific height that covers all of us. Just make them as low as you reasonably can.
I don’t know of any specific height that is too high. It depends some on your chickens and some on your coop. Some full sized fowl chickens will sleep fifteen to twenty feet up in a barn with no problems, but the smaller and tighter the coop, the lower it needs to be.
Hope this helps some. Good luck!
