What age can chicks have a perch?

[The Chickens' Maid]

I was wondering, at what age can chicks use a perch? They are four weeks old now! Thanks!

 

[elmo]

Mine were perching before two weeks, but they're bantam breeds and going to be good fliers.

Put up a low perch (flat or wide is better) and see if yours take to it.

 

[Rebekah]

Here's a pic of my under-two-week-old speckled sussex on a chicken ladder I made out of 2" tree branches. She flew right up on it within a couple hours.

 

[kipper]

MY DH built mini perches with dowels that fit in the brooders. they are about 2-3 inches off the litter. We put them in when they were about a week old, and they began to perch within a few hours. They nearly 4 weeks now and fight over them. They began roosting on them at 2 weeks. Lots of fun for them.

 

[redstars]

My chicks used there roost on day 3.

 

[chickachickadoo]

Our chicks are 4 weeks old and would have roosted a couple of weeks ago if they could have reached the top of the make-shift coop. We're going to give them some low roosts, because we're not wanting to encourage them to fly out at this time. (They're in a temp enclosure in the laundry room while we are building their coop.)

 

[kenguy]

I don't really understand why no one has mentioned that chicks MUST NOT perch too young because they may get a deformed chest. Two of mine that perched early with their mother died at a few months old.
does anyone know more about this?

 

[sunshinechick83]

I don't really understand why no one has mentioned that chicks MUST NOT perch too young because they may get a deformed chest. Two of mine that perched early with their mother died at a few months old.
does anyone know more about this?

I would be interested if anyone had information about that! Ours started roosting at about 3-4 weeks, I hope we waited long enough.

 

[Wol1]

!!! Deformed chest?!!! It seems that it would be natural for mama to want to get them off the ground at the earliest moment for their safety. We put a low perch in with our first chicks at about 3 weeks. They are healthy adults. This year's chicks (four weeks) have had roosting bars (1" x 2") for two weeks. SO, I decided to pull out my "The Chicken, a Natural History" book by Dr. Joseph Barber. Wild chicken type birds develop the flight feathers necessary to fly to branches for safety as early as 72 hours after hatch." Later he states that chicks will fly "vigorously" to reach the safety of a roost at night. Perhaps the deformed chest would be a problem for meat birds that are bred to have unusually large body size/breast meat?

 

[Wol1]

Corrections: chicks will fly "vigorously" to roost by four weeks.