[PaulineM]

Hi 
I would really appreciate any ideas or designs from all you wonderfully inventive people for roosting bars.
I am in the middle of a thorough coop clean and was thinking of doing away with one of my coops. I have two coops that are both in a brick built stable. 9 out of 10 of my hens sleep in the bigger coop and they have all decided that they prefer to lay in the small one. 
What I was thinking was taking away the big coop and somehow make just roosting bars for them to sleep altogether on. I have no idea how to do this and my husband isn't the most 'handy' man.
Any tips welcome 

[joyfull]

I have heard of a few people who aren't handy with a hammer and saw use wooden shoe racks (the sort with one rail higher than the other) and others use wooden ladders placed at an angle. The rungs make nice perches and you have a variety of heights for the top chook to have the top perch 

[PaulineM]

 Thanks Joyfull, the ladders sound like a good idea, I even think we have access to an old one that is very long, we could cut it down and have a couple leaning against the wall. Although would they fight about who gets to the top rung? 

I was thinking of having a high one long enough for them all to roost on if they wanted 

Any other ideas welcome 

[joyfull]

if you have something for the ladder to stand on then you could place it horizontally on the stands giving you a long set of roosting perches 

[PaulineM]

Really good idea, thanks again 

[nerdle]

I bought a set of roosting bars from Omlet and fitted them into a home-made one sided crate so it can be lifted off and cleaned.  An A3 Staples plastic storage tray sits undernesth to catch poo.

[PaulineM]

Thanks Nerdle I'll have a look on the Omlet site. 

I have thought a bit more about the ladder idea and apart from the fact that the ladder I was thinking of using turns out to be metal  I would ideally like them to roost all at the same level or maybe the two levels. 

[kegs]

I saw on another forum that someone hung their roosting bars using joist hangers which seemed a good idea.

[PaulineM]

That's another good idea Kegs, Although my stable's quite wide and I'm not sure it would work but what I did see yesterday was roost bars hanging on chains.  I have joists running along the roof and a roll of plastic covered cable. I was thinking of making a oversized version of a budgie swing (If you get my meaning  )  
How high from the ground would it be safe to hang the roost bars? And would it be better to use round wooden batons or 2" x 2" or even tree branches  
Also what length would suit 10 hens 

[kopperdrake]

One foot per bird, though they won't complain at more, or they'll all huddle together if they're like mine! If you're going to hang or mount the perch might I suggest using threaded rod as the verticals that can be passed through the wooden perch. You can then use Vaseline smeared on the rod which will prevent red mite migrating on to the perch. I also used a willow branch as a perch as each chicken found the diameter they preferred to hold on to by shuffling along the branch.