Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: peachesandclive on March 25, 2008, 22:00
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Hi
I have read on one of these forum things that Chooks need to roost and the best thing is a branch of some sort. Well, in four days of owning these three Chooks I have not seen them roost or perch on anything, they have been free ranging in the garden. I have seen then sitting/lying on the bark chippings and in the hay in the coop but not actually roosting on anything at all. From what I had read it seemed imperative that they did this.
Any ideas?
P&C
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Well, its not imperative that they perch. One of my older Amberlinks never went on the perches, but she does like sitting on the side of the nest boxes. Every night I chuck her off, and next morning, there she is again, but tonight I went down to shut them up, and she's on the perch!!
Also some of the youngsters were lazy and slept on the floor. the only problems with that is if they keep laying on the straw and poop, it can give them bare breasts.
Its early days for yours. how old are they? they may yet get the message, but you cold try just putting them on the perch each night and they may just start doing it on their own soon.
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It is natural for chickens to roost up trees (in the wild). So it is comnsidered good practice to provide them with a perch in their coop or hen house for them to sleep on.
Having said that many keepers say that their chooks prefere to sleep in their nesting boxes :roll:
I have an eglu which has roosting bars and no perch. My hens seem quite happy with that :D
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Dunno if its imperative to be honest, I like mine too roost as I have a droppings board underneath their perch makes cleaning out easy. What you don't want is for them to sleep in their nest boxes cause they poo most just before the go to sleep so you don't want that on your eggs.
It's natural for them to perch but sometimes you have to lift them up onto the perch for a few days till they get the idea.
Hope this helps
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I guess it's wherever they feel safe and warm (and comfortable).
We had at least 3 in the nest box at night. Put straw in and now I think at least 4 are on the perches. Must be too rough for them.
They also spend a fair bit of time perching on logs and branches in their run. Mainly being nosey. :roll:
Rob
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Just bought 5 POL's 2 arrived in one box 3 in another - they have now formed 2 teams and both teams slep on the floor depsite having perchs readily available
May be it is a French thing!
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Our new hens would not roost in the hen house, the first couple of nights they were in the orange tree, so I had to fish them out, all bar one, she was missing. The tree they were roosting in was right next to the fence so I was worried they would escape. The missing hen turned up the next morning on top of the hen house, just a hop from escaping into the campo!! (countryside) After that they started going into the hen house but all sat squashed on top of the nesting box so in the end I used to go in and get the hens one by one and put them on the perch, they eventually got the message.
Pamela