still in progress

[SpeckledSussex2005]

Beautiful coop for a beautiful flock of chickens.

 

[rosemarythyme]

hi not sure what you mean. this is hopefully permanent nest box, but they all sleep on the floor, they won't sleep in the boxes, do you know why, i have 6 girls and one cockerel.

The roost I'm asking about to is the low branch/dowel to the right of the nest box in your photos. Chickens naturally want to sleep on something high off the ground as it offers extra protection against pests and predators. Here's mine for example.



Young chickens sometimes don't learn to roost on their own, so you can train them by picking them off the floor and placing them on the roost at night.

 

[rita2paul]

The roost I'm asking about to is the low branch/dowel to the right of the nest box in your photos. Chickens naturally want to sleep on something high off the ground as it offers extra protection against pests and predators. Here's mine for example.

View attachment 1408665

Young chickens sometimes don't learn to roost on their own, so you can train them by picking them off the floor and placing them on the roost at night.

i see the perch we made was for them when they were babies, hubby said he will make me some more higher up. does yours fly up on the perch.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Yes my hens just fly up. Back when they were babies (and in a much smaller coop) I used a branch sitting at about 30 degrees as a ramp to help them get up and down - they could grapple up and down the branch. But once they learned to fly up to roost at around 7, 8 weeks or so, I took the "ramp" out.