Roosting Poles...new to this!

[SeaChick]

adante-
where are you (what sort of climate)?
I'm assuming that by "roost box" you're talking about a henhouse where the chickens go to sleep at night, lay eggs, eat and drink? That's what most people in temperate climates have, although where its always warm out people do have food/water outside, I think.
Your climate will dictate a lot about how you set this up. I personally have never heard of a henhouse/roosting area that wasn't enclosed, but maybe its normal in warmer areas.
There is also the issue of predators, which is a serious one. If you have an enclosed henhouse, you shut and lock the little chicken door (pop-hole) from dusk till dawn, to keep night predators from eating the birds while they are sleeping.

Also- as far as roost/perch space: plan on 10" of perch for each standard-size chicken. In a small henhouse that dimension will dictate the number of birds you can have. If you happen to live in a cold climate, where the birds will be spending any time at all inside the henhouse, you will need to think about useable floor space, which is generally 4 square feet per bird. Even if you live someplace where it is always warm, and this place is ONLY intended for sleeping, think about providing some shelter for when it rains.

I hope this helps and I am sorry if I misunderstand your questions!
Stacey

 

[jenniescholl]

Hi,
thank you all for your advice! Esp. the one about placing the roosts higher than the nesting boxes...There is so much chicken knowledge out there that I have yet to explore! I will be back often, as I'm still in the brand-new stages of learning about chickens.
Jennie

BTW, no worries about hijacking the post! Those are questions I had too!

 

[moonlitfarms]

I used an old ladder from my kids bunk beds for a roost, worked great. But I was going to build another for outside. Can they roost on pvc or would it be too slick? Give your thoughts.

 

[patandchickens]

How many chickens is this for, adante? If we knew we might be able to recommend a good configuration for your roosting poles.

You do *not* need (or want) a staggered roost arrangement in such a small space and with them so low to the floor.

Quote:
That is a *small* coop if you have more than, like, 3-4 chickens. (And if you have only 3 or 4, you only really need about 3' worth of roost space, btw). There are likely to be ventilation issues. If you are in a warm climate you might want to make it mostly open (hardware cloth enclosed of course) with closeable panels for bad weather, and that should be good. If you are in a climate that has winters at or below freezing, though, you may be in trouble... I am highly skeptical whether it's possible to sufficiently ventilate that size and shape of coop without giving the chickens frostbite from cold drafts.

As long as the ventilation problem is solved, then the simplest thing is to sprinkle just a thin layer of shavings on the floor of the 'roost box' to help the poop scrape out more easily, and scrape it all clean into a bucket every morning.

Some people use a wire floor to let the poo fall thru into some sort of catchment tray that can be cleaned daily or weekly or whenever it gets too nasty, but wire is often a cause of foot injuries that can get infected, it has to be above a predator-proof area so that racoons etc do not reach up and grab your birds' feet and pull them off (yuck), and in such a small coop I think that in gusty thunderstorms your hens would look like that famous Marilyn Monroe scene with the steam vent

3. what's the maximum angle at which I can make a ladder to the roost at? is 45 degrees too much?

45 degrees is not too much, just make sure they have wide-ish smooth flat rungs to hop on and off. (That is, build the ladder with perhaps 2x4s, 4" side facing up, with the rungs installed so the top surface is horizontal rather than having a corner facing up, if that makes sense)

Good luck,

Pat​

 

[CarlaRiggs]

Oh, Pat.... you're such a hoot!

and in such a small coop I think that in gusty thunderstorms your hens would look like that famous Marilyn Monroe scene with the steam vent

Carla​

 

[adante]

hi guys, thanks for your input, and to answer your questions...

Quote:
I am in Brisbane, Australia. I think it is relatively warm here as shown by wikipedia. But of course, warm/cold are somewhat relative.

To put it into perspective, our hottest summer days usually get to about 33c (this is 92 fahrenheight), and our coldest winter nights about 4c (40 f). Wikipedia says that we once went below freezing point by 0.1 of a degree, and we do have freak heatwave days...

I'm not sure how this translates to open/closed design for chicken houses however?

Quote:
By 'roost box' i'm talking about the place where chickens go to sleep and - hopefully - do most of their pooping

I have a big communal 'nest box' for them to - again hopefully - lay eggs. This is also 5ft wide, 1ft deep and a little over 1ft high. I'm probably going to partition this into a series of individual nest boxes.
Both of the above areas are enclosed and covered

Finally the ground area is an open (enclosed by wire) area 10ft by 5ft. I plan to put food and water in here. About 2ft x 5ft of this is covered by fixed wood, but I can cover more of this with waterproof/shade cloth (and wall it in) or something without too much problems.

I guess at the end of the day I would have liked to make the coop generally larger but unfortunately I am limited by space and skill (as in I do not have that much skill with woodwork).

Also, after seeing some of the other designs, particularly the forsham ark (which seems to have an even smaller roosting space), I was hoping that I could get away with the roost size.

Anyway now that you guys know the basic details of the coop I would welcome any input or comments at all. If you want to know any more specifics please do ask.

Quote:
I was hoping to get 4 chickens. I heard 8 square feet is needed per laying hen so I'm hoping this is ok.

Quote:
That is a *small* coop if you have more than, like, 3-4 chickens. (And if you have only 3 or 4, you only really need about 3' worth of roost space, btw). There are likely to be ventilation issues. If you are in a warm climate you might want to make it mostly open (hardware cloth enclosed of course) with closeable panels for bad weather, and that should be good. If you are in a climate that has winters at or below freezing, though, you may be in trouble... I am highly skeptical whether it's possible to sufficiently ventilate that size and shape of coop without giving the chickens frostbite from cold drafts.

I think the ventilation problem is a concern. the long walls (the 5' by ~2') are detachable (can replace with cloth) for when the season changes, but this is something I would prefer to avoid having to do every day/night if possible.

I have not finalized a roof design yet but hopefully I can come up with something that can provide a balance between ventilation and keeping in temperature.

Quote:
I was hoping to avoid having to use wire for that reason, but I wasn't sure whether it was a better alternative to having chickens walking around in their own poop? Provided I have enough wood shavings should this be ok?

With having any wire, to clean up the poop I effectively remove the floor from the roost, as it is basically a tray that slides out - but as this shouldn't take more than a few minutes to empty the tray this hopefully won't be a big deal.

If I have time I'll take some pictures soon for you folks to comment on.

 

[patandchickens]

Ah, now I understand!

That sounds like a perfectly reasonable size setup for 4 chickens, and you will not need a huge amount of roost space either.

If it were me I would probably have a solid floor (scrape off every morning) and put two 2' roosts crosswise at one end of the 5' box, about 18" apart and from the end wall... but that is just me, and there are a lot of other equally good ways of doing it.

As far as wire vs a solid floor, chickens are pretty much naturally doomed to spend their days walking in their own poop at least with *some* steps, and it absolutely will not kill them - I mean, their poop will be on the pen floor too, right?

You just clean off under the roosts in the morning, no big deal.

Can you make the wall solid (even if least removable-to-wire) that's on the 1 or 2 sides that storms usually come from? That way they would have *some* degree of protection from unexpected weather without you having to fiddle all the time, without cutting down on ventilation.

Good luck and have fun,

Pat

 

[adante]

Quote:
Hi pat, unfortunately I don't think I will be doing the 2' roosts because it would be a lot more effort (as the long walls are removable, I cannot mount 2' roosts on them, while I would be able to mount 5' roosts on the short walls as those are fixed... if this makes sense)

Anyway after what you have said I will be going without the wiring/netting

As for the walls, I think my plan is to keep all 4 solid walls in place, and keep an eye on the chickens. If it seems abnormally hot or cramped or they generally seem unhappy then I'll go from there.

Finally I just want to confirm that 4" is generally considered the best perch breadth? I'm just curious because in a lot of pictures the roosts seem to be much smaller than 4". Of course I am not personally very hassled either way I just want the chickens to be as comfortable as possible.

I am also planning to put a perch in front of the nest boxes, should this also be 4"? And approximatelly how far from the nest box (the nest box has a 2.5" lip) should they be?

hopefully this is the last batch of questions - thanks again folks!

 

[stilwellchick]

Everyone has their own idea of what to use for roosts but I really like 2X4s with the edges rounded off a little used with the wide side up. I read some research that showed the chickens had fewer feet problems that way than they do when curling their feet around a square edge. The same research showed they benefit from a wider surface to rest their bodies on especially the heavy breeds. Good luck with your project.

 

[Brian]

Re. Landscape Tinbers:
If you use any sort of "landscape" timber, make sure it is not pressure treated, aka PT wood. This is wood that is infused with toxic chemicals, often including arsenic. These chemicals can be absorbed by your chickens through their skin.