Roost Rejects

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Permalink Reply by rachel whetzel on August 9, 2010 at 5:28pm

I have no experience with chickens not going where they should at night... but I think your numbers are very off with male to female numbers. I don't think that it's about pairs as much as you should have way more females for every male. Most people I know and read about say 8 hens for every rooster MINIMUM. I imagine these numbers might have an impact on roosting. It may be that your roosters are refusing to roost near each other.

Permalink Reply by Amanda Loving on August 9, 2010 at 7:56pm

rachel whetzel said:

I have no experience with chickens not going where they should at night... but I think your numbers are very off with male to female numbers. I don't think that it's about pairs as much as you should have way more females for every male. Most people I know and read about say 8 hens for every rooster MINIMUM. I imagine these numbers might have an impact on roosting. It may be that your roosters are refusing to roost near each other.

Permalink Reply by Amanda Loving on August 9, 2010 at 7:59pm

I did not think of that. I have another flock, and I suppose that the rooster in charge of that one may be overloaded as it is one rooster for 17 hens. I had wanted to keep the pure breds apart from my motley crew, but I suppose I may have to take several hens out of that flock to bring in with the others. Perhaps that will help. I will try, and let you know.

Best Regards!!

Permalink Reply by rachel whetzel on August 9, 2010 at 8:13pm

I'd be interested to hear if that does the trick! I've only ever had on rooster, and he's in charge of 12 hens. Those numbers seem to work fine, and he's a really nice rooster. I don't know how much competition would keep roosters from roosting together, but I do know that my hens that have bonded with my rooster will follow him everywhere. So if he were to stop roosting in the hen house, they would too. If your hens have bonded with their respective roosters, I was just thinking that this might have an impact on where they would roost.

Amanda Loving said:

I did not think of that. I have another flock, and I suppose that the rooster in charge of that one may be overloaded as it is one rooster for 17 hens. I had wanted to keep the pure breds apart from my motley crew, but I suppose I may have to take several hens out of that flock to bring in with the others. Perhaps that will help. I will try, and let you know.

Best Regards!!

Permalink Reply by Amanda Loving on August 10, 2010 at 1:31pm

I will let you know. We will be rounding up some of our Rhode Island Reds from the other flock tonight to transplant in with the others. Hopefully it will work. Like I mentioned these breeding pairs are for chick production as I read that crossing a cuckoo moran with an americauna would generate a chicken able to lay a purple egg. So that is my experimental goal with them. Have you read or heard of breeding for egg color other than the standard ones already available?

rachel whetzel said:

I'd be interested to hear if that does the trick! I've only ever had on rooster, and he's in charge of 12 hens. Those numbers seem to work fine, and he's a really nice rooster. I don't know how much competition would keep roosters from roosting together, but I do know that my hens that have bonded with my rooster will follow him everywhere. So if he were to stop roosting in the hen house, they would too. If your hens have bonded with their respective roosters, I was just thinking that this might have an impact on where they would roost.

Amanda Loving said:

I did not think of that. I have another flock, and I suppose that the rooster in charge of that one may be overloaded as it is one rooster for 17 hens. I had wanted to keep the pure breds apart from my motley crew, but I suppose I may have to take several hens out of that flock to bring in with the others. Perhaps that will help. I will try, and let you know.

Best Regards!!

Permalink Reply by rachel whetzel on August 10, 2010 at 5:29pm

I haven't heard of it! The only colors I've ever read about are brown, white and blue/green in varying shades! I'm interested to hear it you have luck with the idea!!

Permalink Reply by Amy Sirk on August 17, 2010 at 4:21pm

My Ameraucanas will go into the coop, but they won't roost. I'd suggest putting the trash can in the coop.

Permalink Reply by Amanda Loving on August 18, 2010 at 6:53pm

I thought of that, but the trash can is very big, and won't fit through the small door of the coop. I took over some hens from other flock, but they would never integrate, and did not solve the problem. I will be taking them back next week if things don't change. The cuckoos and the americaunas are still roosting in the trash can at night no matter if it's rain or shine, and we are still tucking them in to bed. I suppose that we will continue to do this until we can get the chicken yard inclosed with a top cover so that they can live in their trash can without the danger of a predator getting to them. Geez.

Amy Sirk said:

My Ameraucanas will go into the coop, but they won't roost. I'd suggest putting the trash can in the coop.

Permalink Reply by rachel whetzel on August 18, 2010 at 9:28pm

Something else you might try is to keep them in the coop for a few days. Maybe once it cools off a bit. I know that all my birds needed a couple days to get the hang of where they were "supposed" to sleep at night. Also: I have a couple step ladders that I am using as ramps, and some of my birds use that as their roosts!! I wonder if yours might like something like that? They are just the small wooden step ladders that look like mini versions of a painter's ladder.

Permalink Reply by Amanda Loving on August 19, 2010 at 6:26pm

I will try the ladders. Maybe that will help. We built the roosts out of bamboo, and made sure that it was the right diameter. I will try anything right now. We kept them up in the coop for two weeks when we got them, and they went inside of it for a couple of nights and then suddenly for no reason stopped. We have tried keeping them up again, but they just won't go in at night.

rachel whetzel said:

Something else you might try is to keep them in the coop for a few days. Maybe once it cools off a bit. I know that all my birds needed a couple days to get the hang of where they were "supposed" to sleep at night. Also: I have a couple step ladders that I am using as ramps, and some of my birds use that as their roosts!! I wonder if yours might like something like that? They are just the small wooden step ladders that look like mini versions of a painter's ladder.

Permalink Reply by Sue Tirrell on August 31, 2010 at 2:21pm

Hi! This is a fascinating discussion --I can't wait to see if you get the purple eggs! I had a problem with my chickens roosting in thier nesting boxes instead of the roost I built them and I read that the roosts should be pretty wide--like 4"! Im not sure that is totally necessary but I did throw a 6" wide plank across the top of my roost and closed off the nexting boxes at night and that did the trick. Now they roost on the narrow roosts and also the board. I have opened the nests now that they have started laying--miraculously, they know what to do and where by now! I hope everyone is roosting in their house by now instead of the garbage can!

Amanda Loving said:

I will try the ladders. Maybe that will help. We built the roosts out of bamboo, and made sure that it was the right diameter. I will try anything right now. We kept them up in the coop for two weeks when we got them, and they went inside of it for a couple of nights and then suddenly for no reason stopped. We have tried keeping them up again, but they just won't go in at night.

rachel whetzel said:

Something else you might try is to keep them in the coop for a few days. Maybe once it cools off a bit. I know that all my birds needed a couple days to get the hang of where they were "supposed" to sleep at night. Also: I have a couple step ladders that I am using as ramps, and some of my birds use that as their roosts!! I wonder if yours might like something like that? They are just the small wooden step ladders that look like mini versions of a painter's ladder.