Do I Need To Modify My Roosts?

[Child of Noah]

If you have any thoughts, comments, advice, warnings, etc. please help!

The ROOSTS... this is my biggest problem currently. The "roosts" in my coop look more like a "bench" that is on a slight angle. There are slats that are about 2" apart. Truly it forms an angled "bench" which I can easily sit on in the coop. I really want to change this and give them two 2x4's positioned about 15" from one another, with one being slightly higher (you know... like 99% of coops have)(ideally being removable for easier cleaning). My husband doesn't think it is broken, and doesn't want to fix it. Aside from MY ease of cleaning, I'm looking at this from a chicken-health standpoint. The current "bars" ... isn't that too small? Will this hurt their feet? I know that if birds "in captivity" don't have access to proper roosts they can have issues with their toenails and their feet. But I don't honestly know what the proper size is for chickens.

 

[4 the Birds]

After your birds use the "bench" to roost on for awhile, I really doubt that you will want to sit on it! The problem with the slats is that they will not be ideal to clean. The poop will be on them and down below and not easy to collect poop. A simple bar or two that are spaced farther apart would be best. If you are in a cold climate then the roost bar should ideally be wide enough for the birds to sit and have their feathers cover their feet for warmth. I use landscape timbers for my roost bars since that are rounded on the edges, very sturdy, and nice and wide. The bars don't need to be removable if you can access below them to rake or shovel out poop. Hope this helps!

 

[aart]

Size wise the bar size is probably OK (what are those, 1x2's?), but they are too close together. You could just remove the 2nd, 4th and 5th of the 5 bars. That would leave 2 roost bars with room for the poop to reach the floor.

Not sure how many chooks you have or how long those roost bars are, you need 8-12'' of roost for each bird. They usually are up a bit higher too, but as long as they are higher than the nests they won't roost and poop in the nests.

 

[Child of Noah]

After your birds use the "bench" to roost on for awhile, I really doubt that you will want to sit on it! The problem with the slats is that they will not be ideal to clean. The poop will be on them and down below and not easy to collect poop. A simple bar or two that are spaced farther apart would be best. If you are in a cold climate then the roost bar should ideally be wide enough for the birds to sit and have their feathers cover their feet for warmth. I use landscape timbers for my roost bars since that are rounded on the edges, very sturdy, and nice and wide. The bars don't need to be removable if you can access below them to rake or shovel out poop. Hope this helps!

I don't think I will be sitting on that "bench"

haha! I mainly gave that description so that you would have a better idea of the width and slope of the whole contraption. I thought it was sort of weird that the coop was designed that way. Thank you for the advice about their cold feet, I hadn't thought of that. Yes, I live in NY so they will need to keep their feet covered.

Size wise the bar size is probably OK (what are those, 1x2's?), but they are too close together. You could just remove the 2nd, 4th and 5th of the 5 bars. That would leave 2 roost bars with room for the poop to reach the floor.

Not sure how many chooks you have or how long those roost bars are, you need 8-12'' of roost for each bird. They usually are up a bit higher too, but as long as they are higher than the nests they won't roost and poop in the nests.

I believe (from eyeballing them and comparing to the 2x4 at the front) that those are "finished" 1x2's which takes off... 1/2 inch? of the overall dimension. I am not sure how much it takes off but it is more noticeable when it is being taken from 1x2. The wall they are on is 6 ft, with the nest boxes being opposite from them. I was thinking that they were too close together, so I will definitely use that advice! I'm wondering how high would be "too high" if I were to raise them. The entire coop is 6x4 ft, so to dismount they have to drop nearly straight down, without a lot of room to angle their landing.
While procrastinating and not writing a report last night, I read through the "poop board convert" thread started by Thespoiledchicken. I really like the idea of the litter-pan-poop-board, AND I like the way that a lot of people mounted their food and water under the shelf. However, to raise my "shelf" to where that would be do-able... it seems like the birds would have at least a 3 ft. drop to the floor each morning. Is that dangerous? Is that too high for them to plop without an angle?
So back to the drawing board. Chicks will be going out in the next couple weeks!

 

[canesisters]

If you wanted to raise it up high enough to use the poop shelf idea, you could always provide a ladder or some steps so they don't have to drop to the floor - maybe along the far wall. Just something that they could hop from one spot to another - like some little bitty shelves - would work. I have a piece of landscape timber going from the top of 2 stacked cinder blocks to the 4' tall roost. They walk that timber single file 2x every day. And if someone is slow or stops, they eventually get pecked or shoved off.

 

[aart]

You could just leave them at the height they are, valid point that the wall is pretty close so lower is better, and put a removable poop tray right on the floor.

 

[bruceha2000]

Agree on many counts

1. If you have parallel roosts at the same height, they should be 18" apart so the birds can't peck at each other.
2. They should be a foot from the parallel wall so the birds heads/tails will not be smacking the wall
3. The higher the better, as far as the birds care. But, as you say, the distance to the "far" wall is too close to fly off the roost. So, how about:

• A 4' high roost along the back 6' wall
• A 2 high roost along the wall with the chicken door. You might want to block the end under the long roost so if one of the chickens decides to sleep "low" (unlikely unless there isn't enough room on the high roost) they won't get pooped on. That would be one 10' 2x4 cut 6' and 4'.
• OR you could put a 6' long one at 4' AND a 6' long one at 2 feet. Mine are like that and are 9" apart though wider wouldn't hurt since yours can't safely fly to the floor with no 'runway'. This design would be one 12' 2x4 cut in half. Most places will cut them for you so you don't have to figure out how to stick a 12 foot long board in the car, and less work for DH
  
• In either case, the birds will use the lower roost as a mid point. Since they will need to do this on the way down, make sure you have proper width roosts.
• The birds will LIKE being higher and being able to see out the window from the roost(s)
• The 1x2s are too narrow on either face except as a perch going to an elevated nest box or door (my chickens have a door to the outside of the barn that is 3' off the ground with a ramp on either side of the wall) . I have both a 3" round fence rail and a 2x4 on the flat. Both are commonly used as roosts and are needed so they can keep their feet warm in the winter. You can make brackets (or maybe even buy them) if you want to be able to drop the roosts in and take it them out easily.

BTW, your husband is wrong, it is "broken"

I'm guessing he is not 100% on board with having chickens given how little work this will be.

Bruce

 

[Mtn Laurel]

Don't know how many birds you have but if you remove the roost closest to the wall and the one in the middle, it might be okay. Otherwise, you're going to have a mess on the "bench" as well as on the wall.

 

[Child of Noah]

BTW, your husband is wrong, it is "broken"

I'm guessing he is not 100% on board with having chickens given how little work this will be.

You are correct, he hasn't been completely in favor of "my" chickens. Not fully opposed, otherwise I wouldn't have them.

Thank you everyone for your advice! This helped me to convince my Beloved Husband that it is actually broken and does need to be fixed. I had thought that I would need to do all the work on this myself. But!! one day last week I came home to this:

He had been working at taking out that horrible bench-thing! YAY!!! He got it all out while salvaging most of the use-able wood. A few days later, I put the tile in:
My idea here was that it would be easier/cleaner to get everything out when I want to do a full coop clean-out.
We did a LOT after this, most of it today and we finished after dark so I can't put in photos. Those will come after it is light again.
I am SO happy he helped me with it #1 because I love when we do things together, but also because he has that in-born Husband-Daddy "knowledge" about building stuff that every husband/daddy seems to have even if that isn't what they do for a living. So that made the whole thing SO much easier.
He would listen patiently to my plan of what I wanted in the coop, and how I thought to do it. Then he would say "why can't you just do this"? Which was always way more simple and sturdy than what I had tried to come up with.

Thank you all so very much for you suggestions, the knowledge was put to use in our salvaging and positioning. More photos to come and I'll tell you what I did.

Edit to add: my Beloved Husband read this and said "Awesome! thanks for giving me so much credit. All I did was cut a board and put some screws in."
Right. He did a LOT more than that.

 

[Child of Noah]

After the tile went in, I put up the nest box curtains. In a former life, this was a table runner. Thrift store find $2
Then the roosts. They were made from a salvaged 8 foot 2x4 (free, yay!). The first is about 14" from the wall, about 18" off the ground. The second one is about 18" away from the first, and about 3 feet off the floor. We had first thought of putting a 6 foot roost along the 6 foot wall but this allowed us to had 2 added feet of roosts and have different heights and a place for the food and water (which I wasn't sure about with the 6 foot one). The pink thing in the corner is the dog crate they had been living in the past few weeks. I am leaving that in for now while they adjust to their new home.

Next we put in the pulley for the door. This was probably done backward, since we had to navigate around the roosts without hitting our heads. There is a screw part-way in the wall for a stop for the door so it doesn't pull all the way out. I think the pulley was like $3, making it the most expensive part of this renovation, but well worthwhile since otherwise I would need to go in the chicken coop and under and over roosts to get to the door to open it or close it.

Then we added 2x4s (salvaged) at the chicken door and the people door edges to hold litter in. The one at the people door edge is in brackets (62 cents) so it can lift out for deep cleaning.
The twine I used for the door-pulley system I also used to hang the food and water up. I'm thinking I am going to change the water though. I want to give them back a hamster bottle type thing, and I am considering making a cage with the front face having rabbit hutch mesh so that I can hang the bottle. But that is a future enhancement.
The chickens slept there last night. They all slept last night on the higher roost.