Tree sleeping

[ZORRO3061]

I do not know how frequent this is:

As in any normal hatch, I had an excess of roos, so I gave one of my 5 months old Light Sussex roo to a friend. His flock sleeps on the trees. My bonny lad immediately learnt this ancient habit.



Anybody else having tree sleeping flock?

 

[redsoxs]

If they are able and if they get used to it, chickens will tree roost. Your avatar shows why that's not a good idea. Raccoons, owls, etc. make light work of chickens in trees after dark. I clip the flight feathers on my high flyers so they use their coop and not the trees.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Lots of chickens do it. As mentioned by @redsoxs it is a very bad ideal.

It may take effort, but training them to sleep IN the coop is recommended

That is a nice pic!

 

[ZORRO3061]

Mine all sleep in the coop but my friend prefers this "very" free range

 

[centrarchid]

I have done it many times of the years. I feel comfortable doing such is area below patrolled by dogs and chickens are too heavy to fly with by Great-horned Owls. If younger chickens involved it is also OK if they can bail out of tree into heavy cover ground with dogs also present. I also take into account Owl traffic, when juvenile Great-horned Owls out this time of year through November I pen chickens up.


There is some complexity to this. For decades my grandparents had free-ranging games that roosted in Catalpa Trees year round and did not suffer losses as dogs prevent all predators from coming in. Same location that is not longer possible because not dogs.

 

[donrae]

When I free ranged, I had a trio sleep in a tree for over a year. We don't have a very severe climate here, but did have some terrific wind storms. I always pictured the birds being blown out of the tree and go hurtling around like in a tornado movie, but they never did.

It's way more natural for birds to roost in trees, the higher the better. It just depends on your predator load and loss tolerance.

 

[centrarchid]

When I free ranged, I had a trio sleep in a tree for over a year. We don't have a very severe climate here, but did have some terrific wind storms. I always pictured the birds being blown out of the tree and go hurtling around like in a tornado movie, but they never did. 

It's way more natural for birds to roost in trees, the higher the better. It just depends on your predator load and loss tolerance. 

Winds higher that 60 mph can knock chickens down. I have seen such. Branch moving about too much exhausts chickens. A monkey would have a hard time under those conditions. Nice thing about extreme weather events is they often have predators holed up during them as well. Some predators do come out later to look at those exposed on ground.

 

[ZORRO3061]

yea ! dogs will make the area safe. I just need a dog that doesn´t run after the hens.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Mine all sleep in the coop but my friend prefers this "very" free range

Well, he probably does spend less time cleaning the coop.

It's OK for people to do things differently. Just because I don't prefer it doesn't mean it won't work for someone else.

And we all have to do what we think is right for us so that we can enjoy our hobbies.

 

[bobbi-j]

I had a tree-sleeping flock once... until they were all beheaded by the GHOs that lived in our grove...