When will they sleep on the roost?

[crikkit]

I have three 8-wk old chicks. They have been outside in the coop for about 4 weeks now. I have a pre-fab coop set up as a tractor. I didn't want them to sleep in the nest boxes, so I did not install that part and put a section of hardware cloth across the bottom where the next boxes would go to keep them from jumping down into the run at night. I have a tray with shavings under the roosts. I thought they might try to sleep in the shavings since it was like their brooder, but they cuddle up and sleep on the hardware cloth at night! The good part is that the poop falls through to the ground, which makes for no cleanup with a tractor. I worry about the hardware cloth being bad for their feet, so after they have been asleep for a couple of hours I try moving them to the roost. No matter how gentle I try to be, they wake up and get all flustered, then move back to the hardware cloth.

Do they need more time? I would like to break them of this habit, because they are sleeping where the nest boxes will go!

 

[bruceha2000]

What breed are the chicks? Some (Silkies maybe, not sure) don't like to roost though most do. Mine were all roosting on the 4' high roosts at 4 weeks.

 

[Spartan22]

I have three 8-wk old chicks. They have been outside in the coop for about 4 weeks now. I have a pre-fab coop set up as a tractor. I didn't want them to sleep in the nest boxes, so I did not install that part and put a section of hardware cloth across the bottom where the next boxes would go to keep them from jumping down into the run at night. I have a tray with shavings under the roosts. I thought they might try to sleep in the shavings since it was like their brooder, but they cuddle up and sleep on the hardware cloth at night! The good part is that the poop falls through to the ground, which makes for no cleanup with a tractor. I worry about the hardware cloth being bad for their feet, so after they have been asleep for a couple of hours I try moving them to the roost. No matter how gentle I try to be, they wake up and get all flustered, then move back to the hardware cloth.

Do they need more time? I would like to break them of this habit, because they are sleeping where the nest boxes will go!

At 8 wk old, they will get the hang of it soon enough they just got used having nothing for quite sometime When you move them make sure its dark and they can’t see anything to move out to. Is the roosting bar at least a foot to 2 feet high? It is their instinct to roost at the very early age. I had the mistake on my first year with chicken not to put some small bars when they were young while I was building the coop, so it took them sometime before they roost on the bar after I moved them. The year after, when I had the 2nd batch of chicks I installed a couple of inches height of roosting bars in the brooder, by the 2nd and 3rd week most are roosting on their own therefore they have cleaner feathers and cleaner feet not sleeping where they poop.

 

[crikkit]

They are an easter egger, speckled sussex, and buff orpington. I did make a small roost for them in the brooder, but they only used it during the day and huddled in the heating pad cave at night. They have kept up that behavior even after not having the heating pad cave for 4 weeks. Their roosts in the coop are higher than where they are sleeping on the hardware cloth by about 6 inches. I had plans to raise them higher eventually, but I'm not sure if that will help or make it worse right now. Maybe I'll add in a higher roost and also leave in the others. That will continue my never-ending process of building things the chickens might want, only for them to reject it. Fickle girls!

 

[bruceha2000]

Yep! I built a set of "bleachers" for the brooder, figured the kids would want to sit on them. Nope. Just wasted floor space. The top of their MHP cave and food and water containers? Nice places to sit, though I do understand the top of the cave.

 

[rosemarythyme]

At 8 weeks they can easily make it up to a roost bar a few feet so don't be afraid to move it higher than 6". You can also try a temporary ramp as well to help them get the hang of it if they're not used to the idea of flying up. A ramp doesn't have to be complicated... I put in a branch diagonally leading up to the roost and they learned to grapple their way up and down for a couple of weeks until they were all roosting nightly.

 

[LittleMissCountry]

Mine are going on 8 weeks and they still prefer to huddle together and sleep on the pine shavings than on the roosts. Last night was the first night that I checked and they were all huddled in a line on one of the roosting bars. They ignore the tall bar and roost on the lower one. No idea why.

 

[bruceha2000]

They can fly to 2' at 2 weeks. How high are the 2 levels and what is the spacing between them? Also, what is the configuration of the 2? My 2' high roost (which no bird has ever roosted on) is 9" forward of the parallel upper one. The birds stage the 4' bar from the 2' bar. Or they use the ramp I put in from the 2' one to a perpendicular one at 4'.

 

[Spartan22]

They can fly to 2' at 2 weeks. How high are the 2 levels and what is the spacing between them? Also, what is the configuration of the 2? My 2' high roost (which no bird has ever roosted on) is 9" forward of the parallel upper one. The birds stage the 4' bar from the 2' bar. Or they use the ramp I put in from the 2' one to a perpendicular one at 4'.

Same here’s in my main coop there’s a 2’ high bar, 3’, 4’ and 7’ high rafters. No one roost on 2’ and 3’, They only use them for hopping to higher roosts. Now in breeding coop neither one uses the lower bar, they all prefer the 3’ high so all 10 chickens are lined up on one roosting bar.

 

[fuentemoon]

My two 8 week old black australorps are the same way! They had lots of branches in the brooder that they loved, but slept in their cave at night most of the time. Since moving out to the coop (small prefab unit, new one hopefully soon) they sleep in the nesting box. :/ They are the only chickens in the coop, it is too small for our one adult hen, so that isn't the issue. we have tried replacing the factory bar with branches, but they don't even sit on them during the day.