Chickens not roosting during molt

TOPChickens14

Songster
Dec 19, 2020
201
362
131
Northern New York
For the past few weeks several of my chickens have been molting, they're on the tail-end of the molt but there is one issue. Most of the molting chickens aren't roosting anymore. Some sleep in the nest boxes while a bunch sleep on the coop floor. This has been a pain because the coop is much messier. I had thought maybe they were doing this because of the molt since right when they started molting, they stopped roosting. Is this a behavior anyone's seen before? What can I do to get them roosting again?
Thanks for the help! :)
 
I've had them spread out and roost where they are not touching, but that usually only last a few days.

Might be something else going on?
Post dimensions and pics of roosts and number of birds.
 
Some of my birds will stop roosting when they're molting. But, if they won't go back on the roost anymore, then you can just lift them onto the roost when it gets dark. After doing that a couple times, they should do it on their own.
 
I apologize for not replying sooner. I added another roosting bar onto the roost. Now there is plenty of room for them all to roost up there. I have been putting the chickens that are sleeping on the floor onto the roost each night and they mostly hop back down.
 
For the past few weeks several of my chickens have been molting, they're on the tail-end of the molt but there is one issue. Most of the molting chickens aren't roosting anymore. Some sleep in the nest boxes while a bunch sleep on the coop floor. This has been a pain because the coop is much messier. I had thought maybe they were doing this because of the molt since right when they started molting, they stopped roosting. Is this a behavior anyone's seen before? What can I do to get them roosting again?
Thanks for the help! :)
Chickens sometimes do exibit unusual behavior with seemingly no explanation or lodgic. I would double check to see if there might be a reason that isn't obvious on inspection/cleaning of their coop. If no issues are found, I'd give them a little more time, as I generally find chickens will resume their natural behavior. When the weather is hot my girls do want to spead out, some will even want to sleep outside :eek:and I can't allow them to do that because of owls and other predators. I had to physically put them in their coop at night. I finally came to the conclusion they felt to crowed in warm weather, and my girls really prefer cooler even cold weather better. So the way I solved the problem is I had to build another coop. Something I was planning on doing anyway, they just forced me to do it sooner than I was ready to. :lau
 

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