Chicken coop extra roosts

In the new chicken coop, the chickens all roost above the nesting boxes at night, preferring crowding together on the higher roost over the more spacious main roosts — chickens prefer to sleep as high as they can at night, for safety, even though they’re safe in the closed coop:

(A rather old picture; I don’t have a more recent one, but they’re much the same every night.)

They get there either by flying directly from the floor, or from the main roosts; about the limit of chickens flying abilities:

A GIF of flying from the main roosts, and knocking the camera off:

Here’s a wide-angle shot of the coop:

To give them more options, and make it easier to get to their preferred roost, I decided to add more roosting bars to the coop, which I did yesterday.

I added two extra 2×4 roosting bars above the existing main ones, plus a third bar connecting the uppermost one with the nesting boxes (the other board on the right-hand side was only resting there temporarily):

That will let them hop from the floor to the two lower roosts, then up to the new front upper one, and either to the nesting roost, or to the uppermost one, where they’ll be able to look out that window, or the vent on the right-hand side when that is open in warm weather.

Here’s a closer look at the left side; you can see the existing lower roosts (with the poop tray below), the two new upper roosts, and the “bridge” bar from the upper one to the nesting box roost on the left, all assembled out of 2×4 boards and deck screws:

(Back when I built the coop, I used pneumatic nails for everything, but nowadays I’m a big fan of screws, and deck screws are great for working with 2x4s, as they are self-drilling and a more secure square drive.)

The right side:

Time will tell if they use those new roosts, but hopefully they’ll enjoy those additional options for high roosting and easier access.