Trainig them to roost?

[onionheadtg2014]

I have approximately 50 chickens that range from 8-15 weeks old. They are currently in a 20 by 15 run with a 6 by 8 coop. I will be expanding their run to a 40 by 15 within the next two months. They have plenty of roosting poles/limbs and I cant get them to use them. I had them trained to go in the coop at night but they are growing out of control and it was time for them to go on the roost. I closed the coop door and confined them to the covered run in hopes that they would roost at night. Only about 15 chickens out of the 50 are using the roosts. Does anyone have any advice for me? Will they get the hang of it? I am going on vacation Saturday and my brother is gonna watch them for me but id like to have them set before then.......

 

[Nocila]

Are your roosts fairly thin? I used to have 2x2 boards for roosts, and the birds avoided using them. Now, in our new coop, we have a board that is probably about 2 feet by 1.5 feet, and every night, about 10-15 birds try to sleep on that board (or in the nesting boxes), instead of on the roosting boards. I hear that, with narrow roosting boards where the chickens have to curl their toes around the roost, rats can try to eat the toes of the birds... Chickens, unlike most birds, actually prefer to sleep on flat surfaces, so you might try to replace the roosting boards with a flat surface, so they don't have to worry about rats.

 

[aart]

I have approximately 50 chickens that range from 8-15 weeks old. They are currently in a 20 by 15 run with a 6 by 8 coop. I will be expanding their run to a 40 by 15 within the next two months. They have plenty of roosting poles/limbs and I cant get them to use them. I had them trained to go in the coop at night but they are growing out of control and it was time for them to go on the roost. I closed the coop door and confined them to the covered run in hopes that they would roost at night. Only about 15 chickens out of the 50 are using the roosts. Does anyone have any advice for me? Will they get the hang of it? I am going on vacation Saturday and my brother is gonna watch them for me but id like to have them set before then.......

That is WAY too many birds for that space!!
Each bird needs a foot of roost length...do you have a total of 50 feet of roost in that small of a coop???

 

[onionheadtg2014]

That is WAY too many birds for that space!!
Each bird needs a foot of roost length...do you have a total of 50 feet of roost in that small of a coop???

I know about the space that's why I said I was going to double it. And yes I have enough roosting length. I have 4 10 foot roosting poles which are pretty thick and some are a bit smaller for the little birds. I have about 4 3 foot roosts as well. Plus there is a rabbit hutch inside that they can get on top of and that is quite long. Not trying to be rude but I did say I was going to expand as they grew. Does anyone have any advice on training them to roost at night?

 

[Nocila]

In Aart's defence, it sounded like the run would be expanded, not the coop... They appear to be concerned about the size of the coop, not the size of the run.

My only advice for the roosting, is to give them a different type of places to roost. They feel safer on flat surfaces, so roosting bars probably won't appeal to them. Try putting in some raised flat boards, and see how they react to those...

 

[onionheadtg2014]

O ok my bad.... That is correct as of right now I am only going to expand the run im sorry. I will probably just build another coop about the same size in the other section when I complete it.. And they have a flat surface it is just a bit high right now..... I guess they will get the hang of it. Thanks all.. Sorry aart wasn't trying to be rude I didn't realize you were talking about the coop I get coop and run confused sometimes..... Thanks for your help....

 

[aart]

I did mean the coop size, as that's where the roosts are....
......and why I bolded the coop size and number of birds in the post I quoted.

Even if you could cram 50 foot of roost length into a 6x8 foot space, there wouldn't be any room for them to jockey for space......and they do a lot of jockeying for space at roosting time.

How can you have 4 10 foot long roosts in an 8 foot coop?

Sorry to be so blunt, but I try to speak the truth and am not always diplomatic about it...especially when a situation is presented that sounds like CAFO conditions.


To answer your direct question straight up..... "Does anyone have any advice on training them to roost at night?"
You go out each night and put them on the roost until they get into the habit, it can take several weeks to accomplish.
You may also be dealing with integration issues with the varied ages/sizes of your birds unless you got them all at once from the same place and they were living in the same coop before.

 

[onionheadtg2014]

I did mean the coop size, as that's where the roosts are....
......and why I bolded the coop size and number of birds in the post I quoted.

Even if you could cram 50 foot of roost length into a 6x8 foot space, there wouldn't be any room for them to jockey for space......and they do a lot of jockeying for space at roosting time.

How can you have 4 10 foot long roosts in an 8 foot coop?

Sorry to be so blunt, but I try to speak the truth and am not always diplomatic about it...especially when a situation is presented that sounds like CAFO conditions.


To answer your direct question straight up..... "Does anyone have any advice on training them to roost at night?"
You go out each night and put them on the roost until they get into the habit, it can take several weeks to accomplish.
You may also be dealing with integration issues with the varied ages/sizes of your birds unless you got them all at once from the same place and they were living in the same coop before.

Im sorry I guess I wasn't clear about where the roosts are... I live in Florida so many people here keep there roosts outside in the run. All of my roosting poles are out in the run because it doesn't get really cold here. The run is covered and they are shielded from the rain. The sole purpose of my coop is for egg laying and nothing else. Sorry for the miss understanding and thanks for your help.......

 

[Nocila]

Where are the chickens trying to sleep? If they are sleeping inside, it might be that they feel more protected there...

I live in Washington, and 99% of the time, our birds sleep inside automatically, otherwise, they slept under the coop. We just built a new coop that was on the ground, and only one of them has tried to sleep outside, but she still slept right next to the coop (She actually tried to sleep on the door, which was an upside-down drawbridge...)

 

[onionheadtg2014]

They are sleeping on the ground. I closed the coop door in hopes that they would take to the trees lol.... They have a coop and run and are locked in the run for now. I guess they will get the hang of it idk.