Sleeping on ground not the roost?

[raisinemright]

 

[raisinemright]

Here are a couple pics of the inside of the coop. And the roost. the roost are made up of 1x3's I said 1x2's earlier by mistake. I did sneak in there and see a few of them on the roost tonight lol.

 

[ChirpyChicks1]

How old are they? And are they laying? Sorry, can't remember if I read that in your post or not. If they are not laying then block off the nesting boxes, allowing them to sleep in the boxes is just creating a nasty habit.

A 4x4 coop would be best for only 4 chickens, most recommend allowing for 4sq ft per bird inside the coop and 10sq ft per bird in the chicken run, so your chicken run (8x4) would be best for 3 birds. Do they free range? Over crowding can cause a lot of health issues and stress for the birds.

 

[aart]

Hmmm...looks to be room to get up on roosts.
Might want to put the higher roost near the wall and the lower roost closer to the pop door?

Is that light on all the time? That might bother them, maybe move it farther away from the roost?

Where are you located, maybe light makes it too hot in there?

They can be finicky about roosting.....I'm still having to chase lowest pullet out of nests to roost every night.
So maybe just keep putting them inside onto the roost every night just as they go up. Will be some squabbling till they work it out.

 

[centrarchid]

Check wing feathers for ability support at least limited flight. I do that routinely and this time of year many production breeds are essentially flightless. Make no limping. Also during heavy molt birds like to space out more. Some like to roost on fluffy stuff for warmth. Observe them as they go to roost paying particular attention to social strife.

 

[centrarchid]

This might be a lighting issue. Observe them going roost to see how things play out. Report observations. Consider sounds made and attempts to fly up to roost.

 

[raisinemright]

Thanks for all the info so far, the light is on only when we go into the barn. I have noticed a few of the birds sitting on the roost. They are 11 months old and laying eggs. They do free range in our goat pasture but we do put them up at night. We have only had these Golden comets for almost two weeks and they are molting right now. They are not to mean with each other and seem to be happy and enjoy getting attention from us. Although I did not get any eggs yesterday they have been laying good at 4-5 a day. Thanks again everyone that's why I joined this forum for the friendly info!!

 

[raisinemright]

Are they keepers??

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[aart]

One thing I've learned after 10 years of chicken sitting, 1 year of extensive reading and 3 months of actually owning my own chickens is that:
There's often no accounting for why chickens do what they do, but it's fun to try and figure out!

 

[centrarchid]

The potential cause of problem is having coop in the pole barn where shade is extreme late in the day. Try placing a nightlight actually in the intended roosting area of coop. If it works, then light levels are currently too low at time birds are going to roost to see. On dark nights when my birds get knocked of the roost, I have to turn a flashlight on for birds to see roost to fly up to it. On moonlight nights they can generally see well enough. Mine are out in a field.