when to train for a perch?

[Rorie]

first off, am i right in saying i need to train the chicks to stand on their perch? And if so, when do i need to do this?

Thanks

 

[kjt135]

Most will perch on their own if you give them something to perch on. I keep mine in rubbermaid tub in house and don't want them to get out so I wait until there 3 weeks old and put them in a cage I have set up out side with sticks for roost and they get on by themselves after 1--3 days. Hope this helps
Karen

 

[Avonshire]

I have 2 week old chicks who are standing on perches already--they LOVE them! I did not do this with my first 2 and they are 6 weeks and just starting to figure out what my 2 week old chicks are proficient at pretty quickly! So I say the earlier the better. You can just use a piece of wood to start with. My babies just lay all over the piece of wood in their brooder. It is quite funny to see with their necks all stretched out across the wood. Some people even just get a branch or something from the yard!

 

[wherry]

I just put a stick in the brooder and they figured it out themselves. I didn't have to teach them or even show them that they could roost - they just seemed to think it was a better place to sleep than on the floor. Some even perched on the edge of the kiddie pool they were brooding in.

 

[farmer12]

ya if you put a in smooth round stick it should work

 

[Adenium]

Looks like 1 week is not too early. We took a small box about 4 cubic inches....separated the top and bottom half to make our "end supports". Then took one of those wide sticks they give you at the box stores to stir paint with and poked each end into one of the boxes. Our chicks are a week old today, and the Barred Rock is already hanging out there regularly. She slept on it for a while yesterday with her poor little head hanging all the way down!

I've seen people make little T-squares out of scrap wood and put a dowel across...really anything wide enough for them to balance on without too much trouble, set not too high for them to hop up, should work. It only took them half a day or so to get used to it. It's very cute. Why not try it and see if they like it?

It DID unfortunately allow the Rock to poop nearly on the head of one of the Silkies. Just grazed her and came to rest against her cheek as she was sleeping. I felt a little bad. She kept on sleeping, however.

 

[Rorie]

Thanks for the replies. We have two parrots, so i took one of their natural perches (don't worry, they have loads extras) and put it about 3 inches from the bottom of the brooder so they had to jump over it to move. All but the small one are now sitting on it the inquisitive little things The small one just crawls under! But i'm sure he'll get the hint soon I also moved the heat lamp up to encourage the perch to be used. Happy days!

 

[gardendufus]

I just took pieces of 2 X 4, nestled it down in the wood shavings for support the narrow side up and let the birds do what they wanted with it. As they got older I used long pieces of 2 X 2 braced at the edges of the brooder. They still slept on the floor, but liked to roost occassionally during the day.

Same thing when they were let loose in the coop. They spent the first week or so on the big roost during the day but slept on the floor. Once one started actually roosting at night, the others followed.