how high should the roost be for cochins and sussex?

[bel]

Going to start on a dirt floor coop for inside the run, and I read the speckled sussex and more so the giant cochins are not great flyers, how high should their roosts be?
Thanks,
Bel

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

I try to stagger at about 2', 4', & 6', so they can fly up from one to the other.

 

[patandchickens]

I don't know about cochins, but my sussexes, who are of decently large size, are rather on the thump-y and ungainly side when getting down off their ~4' high roost; I would not personally build one taller for them, unless there was a very easy-access multiple-chickens-using-at-same-time way for them to get down gradually.

JMO, good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Ridgerunner]

Chickens are not the most graceful of flyers. They can get down from quite high areas and almost never get hurt, but the higher they are the greater the chance, especially the larger birds. It's not just the vertical distance but they need some clear horizontal distance to not hit things on the way down, things like feeders, nesting boxes, or walls. The lower the roost, the less horizontal clear distance they need. Some of mine fly straight up instead of using the nesting box as an intermediate step but most use the assist on the way up. They all jump or fly down.

Roosts need to be clearly higher than anything else so they will roost on them. Clearly higher to the chickens is going to depend a bit on the size of your coop and how far the roosts are away from the next high thing. It could be a few inches but one foot should be a safe difference in height. My suggestion is to make the roosts as low as you can and still have them clearly higher than anything else.

I also suggest making your roosts removable so you can take them out when you clean. I drilled holes in the ends of my roosts and in the support, then dropped a 5" nail through as a pin to hold the roosts in place.

I'll include a photo so you can maybe see what I am talking about them using the top of the nesting boxes as a launch pad to get to the roosts. I know. Mine are higher than they need to be, but I used the horizontals already in place as convenient supports.

 

[gsim]

Ridgerunner nailed it good. I just did a poop board at 24" and a roost at 48". They just jump up to the poop board and then to the roost. No walkboard needed.