Spacing between roost bars...

[paneubert]

If I am working with a 24 inch deep poop board, what would folks say is the ideal spacing between two parallel roost bars? I know the suggested spacing is 12 inches from the front of poop board and/or back wall, and therefore putting one bar smack dab in the middle of the 24 inches would meet that criteria, but I am hoping to squeeze two bars in there. Do you think I can get away with something like 8 inches in from the front, and 8 inches in from the back wall?

These would be on the same level as each other, but I suppose I could elevate the "back" bar if that might allow closer spacing to each other.

 

[blackdog043]

I wouldn't put the back roost that close to the wall, unless you want poop running down it.
I put one in the middle of my 24" deep board. They can all fit, but sometimes some roost on the front board, which is only a 1 x. One day I'm gonna put another piece of wood across the front so it'a a little wider for them. All the ones that roost on the front board face forward.

 

[aart]

Ditto Dat^^^

I think you may have trouble trying to fit 2 roosts within that 24",
both with crowding and poop on the wall.

Mine are 24" with bottom of roost is 8" above the board, no over shoots.
Several birds roost on front edge, some sleep right on the board.

 

[jreardon1918]

Our poop boards are only 14" wide and close to the wall. The walls get some poop. It is on my list to widen them and move them slightly away from the wall. I would center one roost on 24".

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you look at Aart's photo you can see how close to the edge they are pooping but those look like they are pretty young birds. I think with a 12" spacing from the edge you'll be OK but at 8" full-sized adult birds will probably sometimes miss. Will they miss enough for it to be a problem? I don't know. Do you have bantams? Also you can see that some of them sleep facing the wall. Some of mine do too.

If you have full-sized fowl they might get in each other's way at an 8" spacing. You may not gain that much more roost capacity by having two roosts that close together. Also some can be pretty brutal on the roosts. Being that close together might encourage pecking. It night not. You just can't tell with behaviors. There is a reason 12" is the recommended minimum spacing.

I don't think raising the back one will do any good. The more dominant will all want to sleep up there since it is higher, but any that don't fit will get rained on. I don't know if you have enough that they can't all fit on one anyway, especially when they are mature. I personally don't have a big problem with a little dried poop on the wall. I don't see how it endangers them but to some people it is a no-no.

You can always try 8" and see how that works for you. It may work out fine for you, it may not. There is only one way to find out.

 

[aart]

If you look at Aart's photo you can see how close to the edge they are pooping but those look like they are pretty young birds.

Only 6-7 weeks old.
ETA...this was a brave bunch...they were on main roosts like shown only a week after brooder walls came down and nests were blocked.

 

[paneubert]

Thanks for all the comments. I would be fine with them roosting on the front lip as well as the real roost, so that may be something I design for with a "thicker" lip when framing the poop board. Maybe even account for front roosting by placing the "real" roost a little closer to the back wall. Just by an inch or two so they have that much less chance of pooping on each other. I don't really mind poop on the back wall since at this point I plan to design it so that I can somewhat easily clean the back. Vinyl back wall or something of that sort. But avoiding the need to clean the back at all is obviously going to be preferable.

I was sketching out different orientations for the bars and nothing seemed to net me much extra usage of the space. Right now I am planning a 24 inch by 60 inch poop board. Sketched out various things like using a "H" shape with two 2 foot bars running front to back, (one foot in from each side), with a 3 foot bar running perpendicular in the space between. That technically gets me 7 linear feet of roost with at least 12 inches between any edge or bar. But the spots close to the intersections of the "H" would not be usable. Either a chicken on it facing one way, or facing 90 degrees/the other way. So probably back to the same usable space as just running a single 5 foot roost down the long end of the board, 12 inches from both the front and back edges.

After all the mental gymnastics, I might just ditch the current plan and custom build something more to my liking. I could go wider than 5 feet by 2 feet in the coop, but that is what the dimensions are of the table I am trying to repurpose for nest boxes and poop board/roosts. If I can avoid having to make a larger "topper" for the table, I will. But I guess I could always toss a cut down 4 by 8 foot sheet of plywood on top of the table. I have about a max of about 6 feet of width to work with for the poop board. Chicken math hits often, but the plan for this is to house about 6 or 7 chickens. Hence why my 5 foot table starts to worry me with only 5 feet of roost.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm always in favor of providing as much room as you reasonable can., whether that is roost space, coop space, or run space. I even like larger nests that the minimum recommendations. I've seen recommendations of roost space per chicken any where from 7" per full sized fowl chicken to 15" per chicken. Everyone has an opinion but the only one that counts are the chickens'. If they will all be about the same age and integrated I think you have a reasonable chance of 5' being enough for 7 chickens. I would not try to integrate with that small a roost space but many people even make that work.

 

[aart]

I should take pic tonite,
my current 18 birds sleep on about 6' of the 11' available on main roosts/boards,
they use it all before getting settled tho.

 

[RoosterML]

For a double roost I think 36" would be minimum. With that said I like to have the roost at different heights one roughly 12" higher than the other. I think it allows the birds lower in the pecking order on the lower roost to duck under and away from the pains in the arse ones up top that try picking on them but can't reach them this way.
Space of my top roost is roughly 10"-12" off the back wall(back of 4x4 to wall) and other roost roughly 14" in front of that with a 12" offset in heights. Has worked well. You can see in the photo no poop on back wall. I can easily slide the roost front or back. You will see how close you can get to the back wall after the first night they roost. Poop is lined up about 4" in front of back wall. Adjust depth according to the poop line below.
Here's a couple photos for reference. Front and side views