[RichardH]

We've had our four pullets for two weeks now, and they picked up the whole going to bed and perching thing pretty quickly. We've been checking them every evening and lifting them up on to the perches if they've been on the coop floor.

All but one of them is now perching without the need to lift her up. The fourth (Penny - who does appear to be lowest in the pecking order) is still remaining on the floor of the coop, but does stay on the perch is lifted on.

Anyway, here's the inside of the coop:


The 3 "perchers" tend all to perch on the far perch - the one nearest the pophole. I wonder if once they're up there, Penny is not "strong" enough to hop up and join them. So I was wondering if I should space the perches further apart so that it would be easier for her to hop up onto the second perch, and not be impeded by chickens' bottoms.

At present the perches are around 12" apart.

Ta!

[colliebird]

We've had our four pullets for two weeks now, and they picked up the whole going to bed and perching thing pretty quickly. We've been checking them every evening and lifting them up on to the perches if they've been on the coop floor.

All but one of them is now perching without the need to lift her up. The fourth (Penny - who does appear to be lowest in the pecking order) is still remaining on the floor of the coop, but does stay on the perch is lifted on.

Anyway, here's the inside of the coop:


The 3 "perchers" tend all to perch on the far perch - the one nearest the pophole. I wonder if once they're up there, Penny is not "strong" enough to hop up and join them. So I was wondering if I should space the perches further apart so that it would be easier for her to hop up onto the second perch, and not be impeded by chickens' bottoms.

At present the perches are around 12" apart.

Ta!

Are the perches maybe too high?

[Roughlee Handled]

Looks great to me. They may be a tad high. Just as long as there heads are not in the air flow. 
Ventilation without draft.

I have perches in the run that are pretty high and even the big faverolles can get up and down from them.

[RichardH]

Distance to the top of the perches is around 13" from the floor of the coop. By "strong" I meant in dominance terms rather than physical ability. Having said that, there are no obvious signs of bullying - she's able to come and share space at the feeder with the others, even first thing in the morning.

I'll keep persevering with moving her up onto the perch every night and see how we get on. If I can find some small joist hangers I could drop the height of the perches a bit, so I may experiment with that at some point too.

[colliebird]

Distance to the top of the perches is around 13" from the floor of the coop. By "strong" I meant in dominance terms rather than physical ability. Having said that, there are no obvious signs of bullying - she's able to come and share space at the feeder with the others, even first thing in the morning.

I'll keep persevering with moving her up onto the perch every night and see how we get on. If I can find some small joist hangers I could drop the height of the perches a bit, so I may experiment with that at some point too.

13" isn't high at all, and she should be able to get up on it easily.  Mine are much higher and none of the girls have a problem.

[RichardH]

Yes, she can get up on there all right, I'm just guessing shje doesn't want to because the higher ranking birds are up there already, and there's not enough room to get up easily. Hence the thought that if the bars were further apart, she'd be able to hop up onto the second bar more easily (that the others aren't on).

[coco]

Is there any such thing as the ideal perch size?  

Ours have a piece of wood which used to be part of bench seat, so is flat rather than round although I'm not sure whether they mind or not  
xx

[Roughlee Handled]

For all info about DIY coops including size of perch click on the link below
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=32947.0

[RichardH]

OK, watched them get down this morning, and Penny waited til the others had dropped of their perch, then hopped across to that one and then off - so I'm going to try widening the gap between perches to see if that makes access to the second one easier.

[RichardH]

Had a rejig of the perches yesterday:



So pretty much the full length is easily accessible. Had to lift a couple of them up on to it last night, but will persevere and see how it goes.