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Every night our cockerel takes over the WHOLE of the lovely hay-padded nesting shelf in the hen house. I mean he really stretches himself right out! He makes sure there's no room for any chickens to even dare contemplate joining him up there. ANd he poops all over it too!

The chickens have a perch, with plenty of room for all 6 of them. But they always sleep on the cold concrete floor And end up with dirty bums from sitting in droppings!

I've stopped putting hay down there to encourage them up on to the perch but nothing.

Why do they not use the perch - any thoughts?

You could always try putting them on the perch at night once they are settled - they shouldn't create too much of a fuss once they are in their night time mode.

Is it very warm at the moment? They might be looking for the cool of the concrete.

Have your girls ever perched? Mine are ex-battery hens. It just never occurred to them to go up on the perch. For about four nights running I just picked them up and put them on the perch before shutting them up at night (there's a thread on here about it somewhere). They soon got the hang of it and now hop up when they are ready to go to bed.

Zoe

unfortunately it's not a hen house that I can reach in to do that with (putting on perches). It's more of a 'no human access but tip upwards to clean out' house, patented of course .

It IS very hot but they have always done this, even in colder months. Before the cockerel came along the bossiest one claimed the hay bed.

However Thomzo's comment might explain it. Although they are not ex-battery but ex-free range farm, I remember now that the man who sold them to us kept them in sheds at night without perches. Aha! Bingo!

So I suppose that even if we put in another nesting shelf, it will only be used by the leading lady and the rest will sleep on the floor as usual, and will still sport muddy bottoms. Ah well.

Thanks for the thoughts and help!

Have you tried maybe laying some small logs or large sticks on the floor? Maybe they would perch on them, just off the concrete, if they had the choice.

Now THAT is a fab idea, so simple and yet so logical. Thank you - will give it a try.

sage and onion time for the cockerel!

lol martin tempting!

burek wrote:Every night our cockerel takes over the WHOLE of the lovely hay-padded nesting shelf in the hen house. I mean he really stretches himself right out! He makes sure there's no room for any chickens to even dare contemplate joining him up there. ANd he poops all over it too!

The chickens have a perch, with plenty of room for all 6 of them. But they always sleep on the cold concrete floor And end up with dirty bums from sitting in droppings!

I've stopped putting hay down there to encourage them up on to the perch but nothing.

Why do they not use the perch - any thoughts?

To start with, you should never use hay in the henhouse. Not only does it harbour mites but readily grows fungal spores which cause breathing problems.
Secondly, the nest shelf should not be accesable at night. Is there any way you can adapt the henhouse to make is more suitable by putting the nest area near the floor and the perch higher. This is how it should be and is why henhouses are designed with the perch higher than the nest box, in order to avoid birds roosting in them at night.
Basically the perch should not be round but squared or oblong and placed higher than the nestbox.