FunintheRun
In the Brooder
About a month ago, I inherited a flock of 6 hens and a small coop from my mother in law. I'm brand new to chicken keeping but really enjoying what I'm learning and hope to make this work. The coop is only about 4x4, which from all of the things I've read and heard is a bit small for 6 chickens, BUT it's what I have, and they're used to be 8 of them squeezed in there before I got my 6.
For reference, I have a Polish, an Easter Egger, a Silkie, and 3 Polish-Silkie crosses. They're all on the smaller side, but I don't think they're bantams, except maybe the silkie?
Since getting the coop, I've been trying to make little updates here and there to extend the life of the coop and make my hens more comfortable. Changes include deep cleaning, a new, easy clean floor, new waterer for winter, nest box updates, and as of today, new roosts.
I swapped out an old 1.25 inch dowel on a rusty bracket for a wide-side-up 2x4 (plus a lower 2x4 for my silkie who had been roosting on the skinny edge of a milk crate nest box). New roost was MAYBE an inch or 2 higher than old roost (about 24 inches from floor). When the girls went to bed, they didn't know what to make of the new roost. (Silkie loved hers!) They kept jumping up and missing and making quite a fuss. Eventually most of them settled up there, but I had to pick up one hen and place her on the roost, where they are now.
Did I mess things up by trying to upgrade their roost for them?
Was it harder to hop on because the 4 inch board is much wider than the old dowel roost?
Is 24 inches too high for a hen in a small coop that doesn't have room to really fly/flap?
Should I lower it a bit?
Should I add a lower perch or ramp for hens that struggle?
Do big changes like this just take time to get used to?
I hear chickens are pretty hardy and adaptable, but being new, I don't want to ask too much of them. Thank you for any advice!!!
For reference, I have a Polish, an Easter Egger, a Silkie, and 3 Polish-Silkie crosses. They're all on the smaller side, but I don't think they're bantams, except maybe the silkie?
Since getting the coop, I've been trying to make little updates here and there to extend the life of the coop and make my hens more comfortable. Changes include deep cleaning, a new, easy clean floor, new waterer for winter, nest box updates, and as of today, new roosts.
I swapped out an old 1.25 inch dowel on a rusty bracket for a wide-side-up 2x4 (plus a lower 2x4 for my silkie who had been roosting on the skinny edge of a milk crate nest box). New roost was MAYBE an inch or 2 higher than old roost (about 24 inches from floor). When the girls went to bed, they didn't know what to make of the new roost. (Silkie loved hers!) They kept jumping up and missing and making quite a fuss. Eventually most of them settled up there, but I had to pick up one hen and place her on the roost, where they are now.
Did I mess things up by trying to upgrade their roost for them?
Was it harder to hop on because the 4 inch board is much wider than the old dowel roost?
Is 24 inches too high for a hen in a small coop that doesn't have room to really fly/flap?
Should I lower it a bit?
Should I add a lower perch or ramp for hens that struggle?
Do big changes like this just take time to get used to?
I hear chickens are pretty hardy and adaptable, but being new, I don't want to ask too much of them. Thank you for any advice!!!
And some of what gets passed around as "fact" isn't really all that accurate. I've seen people argue that chickens cannot lock their feet around a round perch like other birds, because that's what the internet says, and yet, my flock sleeps with their toes locked around round bars. 
