[Charlie's Chickens]

Having bought 4 new girls last autumn, I always new there would be teething problems with settling in but really!!!

My Devon Rock, Lottie is such a sweet lovely little girl but refuses to perch.  Initially I thought I would pick her up and perch her for a few nights and she would get the hang of it, but oh no, she had other ideas and quite liked that routine.

6 months on and she still doesn't perch, but instead chooses to wander out onto their ramp when she hears me coming and wait for me to pick her up and perch her....lazy little madam!  I have even tried leaving her to see if eventually she would perch..but no she would rather sleep on the floor  :blink:

I have a feeling the routine is now ingrained, for both of us 

[Beano]

Aah how sweet! She sounds adorable.

[SMS6]

I have one that always sleeps on the floor too, I've only seen her perch twice in the 10 months since we bought her and when she perches she seems to sink right on to the perch whereas the others seem to remain standing

[New shoot]

They do love routine though, so you may have set a habit for good there  

Whenever I clean my big gang out they get to run amock in the garden for a bit.  Trouble is they now know my cleaning regime to the second and as I get them back in with a shake of the mealworm bag.....    Well as you can probably guess, rather than staying out of my way I now get very excited hens racing back in as soon as they see the new sawdust go in the coop because they know what's next  

[Beano]

Whenever I clean out the coop I shut the hatch while Amber hangs around outside waiting to be let in to inspect the job as soon as I've finished. Poppy used to be the inspector but has lost interest and Amber has taken over. Funny girls.

[grinling]

Why do you need her to perch? My BIL's chickens don't.

[Charlie's Chickens]

If she doesn't perch she is either in the nest box or on the floor under the other chickens, neither spot ideal.

[Chrysalis]

Our original four girls didn't like to perch, but would rather squash themselves into one nestbox. very warm it was, too
With our new girls and two of the first batch still going, we find that they like to roost outside as much as possible, but in Winter they perch (well, some of them do ) and some squash into a box....  No accounting for taste as they say!