Proper design of Roost Bars

[Howard E]

I fear I am about to soil someone's shrine, but here is a modern era reference to proper roost bar design:

http://www.yourchickens.co.uk/care-and-advice/the-perfect-perch-1-2842822

It is a layman's summary of this study (which I cannot open or I would have only referenced it):

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21406354

So best roost bar design is basically a 2 x 2 (nominal 1.5" x 1.5") square wooden pole with top edges rounded over slightly. It is NOT a 2 x 4, flat side up. (45mm = 1.75")

This is basically the same conclusion that was referenced in poultry husbandry books published over 100 years ago......except those actually referenced 1" x 2" roost bars, narrow side up......but their test birds were smaller leghorns. These smaller roosts, with a flat side on top, allow birds to grasp roost with their toes, front and back and will support their weight on both the keel bone and their feet.

For those of you who advocate the 2 x 4 wide side up (as near as I can tell, it is based 100% on the notion that birds need to keep their toes warm), rather than referencing a bunch of anecdotal evidence or your own personal preference, please rebut this with some scientific research. I think what you will find instead is that birds roosting on a 2 x 4, wide side, will still wrap their front toes over the front edge (exactly the same as on a 2 x 2), will still rest part of their weight on the keel bone, but have no ability to grasp the roost with their back toes, which means they struggle with balance. With birds that perch (like chickens), to grasp the roost they wrap their front toes over the front, back toe over the back and when they crouch down, tendons in their legs flex the toes to lock down on the perch (roost bar). The can't do that on a wide board. At first I thought it was a shame the scientific study did not include this, but then realized the scientific community may have seen testing wide boards as roosting perches so far out of whack it never occurred to them to consider it? Anyway, if you feel strongly about it, find us some research where it has been tested. I'd really like to see it.

And lastly, place all roost bars at the same height. NO ladder styles, unless intent of the ladder is to allow them steps to get to the top rung. And roost bars elevated higher than any nests. That is if you want to follow established poultry science and do it right.

 

[Tlmcq]

I have used several styles and as far as I can tell you are correct. My chickens prefer a smaller bar like a 2 inch piece of tree branch or 2x2 rather than wider 2x4. Although, I do have a group that prefer to use an old wooden ladder that just happened to be setting in coop a few days, but I think that is because they are lazy and would rather walk up the rungs instead of jump up n down...lol. My bigger birds and roos tho do use the corners in their coop which are flatter and wider. No science to my experience just bird preference, but would say for the majority of my chickens their preference coinsides with your science. Very interesting info, thanx.

 

[CapricornFarm]

I would think birds would prefer round bars to square ones for comfort. The perches should be large enough for them to grasp the widest part and not wrap their toes all the way around . This is how perches are selected for caged birds, if memory serves me correctly.

 

[Krazyquilts]

Wow, what a fascinating article! I always prefer scientific data and have been trying to figure out how to design roosts for a new coop - this eliminates the guesswork.

 

[FlyWheel]

Well, I never referenced any research papers when I made the choice for my hens, I just used simple logic; chickens evolved to roost in trees, on branches, so ideally a branch would be the best choice. As finding a branch strong enough and straight enough for the 6 foot span as well as supporting all the chickens and their poop trays would have been impractical, I chose what I thought would be a good substitute: A 2.25 inch wide stair rail which has a gradually curved top that I roughed the top of with really coarse sandpaper. The result is pretty much what your article describes, a two inch top with rounded edges.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Creative-S...x-8-ft-Stain-Grade-Un-Plowed-Handrail/3727399

My ladies seem to like it, I certainly haven't heard any complaints from them.

 

[CapricornFarm]

We have 13 acres of woods so finding trees is not an issue.

 

[Tlmcq]

I also have plenty of woods so branches are the best choice for us too

 

[Molpet]

most of my older ones sleep on top of a old prefab coop that is in the hoop coop.. they go inside it and a dog house when it is below -10f ..use it as a huddle house
young ones get the 2x4 roosts that are a couple inches higher that the huddle houses... .. I'll have to put the narrow end up and see if it makes a difference.

 

[jeepgrrl]

I started out with 2" x 2" square roosts when the girls were first moved out to the coop last spring. Inside of the coop is a wooden box that contains the electronics for the coop door. I had covered the box in hardware cloth to deter the hens from pecking the on/off switch. Well, one of the girls decided to roost up there one night and pooped all over the hardware cloth. What a pain to clean that was! I asked my husband to cover the hardware covered box with a shelf if the hens are going to sleep up there and it would keep poop off the hardware cloth. Since then we have installed a second shelf across from the first one. Four of the six girls sleep up on the shelves; one is too big to get up there so she sleeps on a 2x4 - yup I changed out one of the 2x2s when the weather turned cold so their feet wouldn't freeze and the only hen that was using the 2x2 roost started using the 2x4 roost. The sixth hen took over my shelf that I used for storing chicken coop supplies. In the spring I am going to offer them tree branches, as we also have access to wooded land, and see what they do with those. But up til now, 5 out of 6 of my girls choose a wide, flat roost (shelf) over a 2x2 or a 2x4.

 

[Howard E]

Which one is the highest roost? When you say "up there", are the shelves and such higher than the roosts? Birds tend to always use the highest thing available to them.

I'd be curious to know sometime how high they would go if given the choice.

One motivation is heat rises, so the higher you go in a coop, the warmer it is. They can feel it if we can't. They also like to get up off the ground to get away from any ground based predators. They may instinctively know it is safer up there.

I know my roost bars were initially at 3' or so off the deck. Above them was the top plate 2 x 4 of the back wall, which was about 18" to 20" above the roost. They kept launching themselves at that top plate out of blind determination to go higher. So I moved the roost up a full foot....now they could see there was no place to land and all that stopped.

I was amazed to watch the wild feral chickens in Key West go pretty high in the trees.....like 20 feet or more. Some will have birds roosting up in the trusses of their barns if they are able to fly that high, or find a ladder system to work their way up that high.

When my daughter allowed her birds to free range, they quickly abandoned the coop they were given and homed to in favor of the kids playset........the kind with high fort and swing set. They began roosting high up in the fort.....and on top of the swing set. RIR and Buff Orps. Big girls but made that leap with ease.