[Silkysmooth]

I have recently put in a perch (roughly a week ago) and the birds have been using it (5 out of 14) but the rest have been perching on the top of the nesting boxes. so I have put a sloped top on the boxes to try to get them to perch.. now they just go in the nesting boxes and use them to sleep in!

Apart from all the poo I have to clean out of the boxes, will it do any harm for them not to use the perch I've put up and sleep in the boxes instead? they only usually lay late morning/afternoon and they are let out quite early morning.

Many Thanks

Andy

[joyfull]

their pooh is quite acidic so sleeping on their pooh is not a good idea, they can get sore and burnt from it 

[joyfull]

my Mrs Poot has an eye infection caused by not perching. She had myco again and so her eye was bubbly. Now Mrs Poot does not like to perch at night and usually sleeps standing up with her head bent and beak resting on the floor (sometimes she will lie but still has her beak touching the floor). some muck has got stuck to the bubbly eye and infected it. She now has to have eye drops put in twice a day for 5 days - these eye drops from the vets are antibacterial human ear drops that also contain an anti inflammatory steroid and these are quite difficult to put into a bird. So this is another reason why you must get them to perch.

[Craig69]

How do you get a hen to sit on a perch?

I only have 3 girls & the perch is big enough for about 6.

1 of them (not sure who - but sure they take turns ) sits on the floor at night.

[joyfull]

when they are asleep you have to open their coup and lift them onto the perch - be carefull as they can lose their balance and start to flutter about which can wake the others up but when you are sure they have relaxed close up again. I then usually wait out side of the coup to listen if any jump back down. Last night it took 7 attempts but hey presto they were still on it this morning 

[Craig69]

I can't actually get in properly where they perch so this could be fun
They have a small door on the front of their house that i have to reach into to clean them & unless i am Alice in Wonderland i have no chance
Can't even reach the one on the floor from the next boxes as the others perch infront of her

[Casey76]

Ah the wonders of poorly designed coops!

It can help if the nest box is higher than the floor, and the perches are higher than the nest box, as the hens will want to perch on the highest place possible.

having said that I have two hens who don't perch at all.  They are meat hybrids and are too heavy to jump more than a couple of inches - but they seem happy to sleep on the floor of the coop rather than in the nest box.

[Craig69]

Yes i did by a pretty looking hen house

Only now realise after i put hens in it how awkward it really is.
It looks nice but that all i can say about it.

I am looking at making something different later on when i have moved, that i can walk into.

[joyfull]

sounds like you need a shed then 
My sablepoots have been moved into a home of their own as they need to be kept out of bad weather so I bough one of these wooden tool stores with double doors on. Grannie Annies Brian put a pop hole in the side opposite the double doors, an external nesting box in one of the double doors (the one that I can keep bolted if I want) and a perch near the opening door. I am going to put some photos on here later so you will be able to see what I mean. It is big enough for four bantams easily but I'm sure you could make or adapt something similar for large fowls 

[Casey76]

Craig, we've all been there!

I have two of the most poorly designed coops on the face of the planet, and yet both looked OK from the pictures on the net!

My big coop needed MAJOR modification (collapsable struts added so the roof could open; and in the end I cut away the back panel to hinge it) so I could actually get in to clean the blessed thing!

After starting to build my own coop, I found many design flaws, so that idea waqs scuppered until i could come up with something better... I now think I'm ready lol!