Yet again, a roost question - 12" ok from wall?

[chris10sen]

OK, so I have read that ideally the roost should be 18" from the wall. Other than a dirty wall, what other problems would I have if I put my roost 12" from the wall? I am getting standard size hens and I do want to preserve as much open space as I can because I am in MN and I am concerned about winter space. I really, really want a drop board but if I have my roost 18", well then wouldn't the drop board have to be 30"? Do the birds walk under the drop board OK if it was 24" off the ground? I am having a devil of a time trying to figure out the layout of my hen house.

Thanks,

Lisa

 

[GermanChick]

My roost are 12" from the wall and there is no poop on the wall, they are doing fine, and you can see in my signature that I have standard/on the bigger side birds. My poop boards are 24" centered underneath and they catch all the droppings. For my it works perfect !!!!! My roost are 4 feet off the ground and the poop boards are, I think, 9 inches underneath.

 

[rocketdoctor]

How do you chickens get up to the roost do you have a ramp? what is your roost made of. I made my roost out of 2x4 laid flat like someone recommend but it appears that the birds like sitting on the ramp leading up to the roost. My coop is fairly narrow so the ramp is steep, I was thinking I should just build steps for them to hop eaiser to the roost what is recommended for that

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Enh. You can do it if you really think you have to - the chickens may get a little frayed in the tailfeathers if they are large and long-tailed but otherwise it is not a huge deal.

I am getting standard size hens and I do want to preserve as much open space as I can because I am in MN and I am concerned about winter space.

The roost is usually Up There, and it is only *floorspace* that needs to be aplenty for wintertime.

I really, really want a drop board but if I have my roost 18", well then wouldn't the drop board have to be 30"? Do the birds walk under the drop board OK if it was 24" off the ground?

No, the droppings board just needs to be something on the order of 14-16" wide and centered under the roost. It does not HAVE to go all the way to the wall. Actually it can be even narrower than that, you'll just 'miss' more poo.

And 24" is PLENTY for them to walk around under. (even 14" is not unreasonable, as long as that is 14" of actual space rather than 8" of space and 6" of bedding depth

)

The usual factor controlling how far from the wall you can afford to put the roost is neither of the above things, it is making sure that the birds have enough horizontal room in front of the roost to conveniently jump up *and down*. THey tend to go in a ballistic arc, especially when coming down (mine prefer to sort of flap/fly down), not directly up like a helicopter. So there needs to be some reasonable amount of open space in front for them to use.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​

 

[Backyard Hencam]

Originally we had our roost about 5' above the floor in a tiny henhouse. We saw that the hens were dropping down hard on a cement floor as they didn't have enough room to fly at a slant. Although they would prefer to be at the top of henhouse, we've lower it to 4' feet with another at 2'. Now they use the 2' one to step up and to step down. Much safer!