perches

[suee]

I just read berryberry's post about his chicks not using their perch. We have the same problem and someone told me the perch should be squared off - we just used an old round wooden curtain pole. Any thoughts? We can't lift them up onto it without a huge parlaver.
Sue.

[Squirrel]

suee - your chicken perches should be square with the top side rounded off - how best to explain it? Take a square piece of wood and then sand the top two edges so that they are rounded this will give you a sort of oval top with a square bottom - does that make sense?

Chickens normally start perching when they are about8 - 10 weeks old, sometimes older. What age are your chooks? Are your existing perches higher than the nest boxes? Are they roosting in the nest boxes? Sorry lots of questions but chickens like to roost high, so perches need to be higher than nest boxes.

It might be a palaver to pick them up on to the perches, but if you do it for a couple or four days, they will probably start roosting of their own accord. Hope this helps, if not just ask away!

[poultrychat]

The curtain poles might well be too narrow for them to perch on or too slippery for them to grip, try a piece of wood about 2 x 1 and take off the top edges so their toes don't get sore

[suee]

perch

Thanks poultry chat and squirrel.
Our chickens are just over a year old and came from the next door neighbour - we're not sure that they were used to sleeping on the perch there. Our perch is higher than the nesting box, though it sounds as though we need to try a bit harder with the shape of it. We do get poo inthe nesting box so suspect that at least one of the four is sleeping there.
We learn as we go along!
Cheers, Sue.

[poultrychat]

Maybe block off the nesting boxes so they don't do that to make sure you get nice clean eggs

[Loz]

Suee, what breed are they? Despite your best efforts, some will not perch. Having said that, perseverence does pay off, try putting them on when it is dark.
Loz