More changes to the chicken shed

I have been taking photos each evening since we put in the higher perches to monitor how the girls were getting on with them.

The third evening with the new perches

The pattern seems set

Honey seems to favour the spot by the window. Once Butterscotch comes in she goes to the top and usually Toffee and Speckles drop down to the old perch.

As it is getting light later in the morning I have been in the run before the girls come out of the shed and over the last couple of mornings I have realised things were not as I expected.

I imagined the girls rushing to get through the pop hole as soon as it opened but when I went in the girls were still on the perches and the pop hole was open.

On the first morning I hooked back the door of the shed as I do each morning when I poop pick. The automatic door was open (it may have only just opened) but all the girls were still up on the perches.

One by one they came to a position in front of the door and flew out over the patio and into the garden part of the run.

They all came out except for Butterscotch who seemed agitated and didn’t appear to know how to get down.

Butterscotch can’t seem to work out how to get down

She was clucking loudly and seemed unsure how to get to the lower level

Butterscotch looked about to jump

She made it the lower perch like the rest of the girls and then also flew over the patio into the garden part of the run.

This quite unsettled me as I had always assumed that the girls just came down the ladder in the same way as they went up. I wondered if this behaviour was simply because the door was open and it was the quickest way down. It worried me though that Butterscotch was struggling to find her way down to the lower perch.

Another result of the higher perch was that once again Butterscotch had missed laying for a day then laid her egg at first light as usual. Because she was on the new higher perch her egg didn’t a stand a chance and lay broken beneath the perch.

I decided to take photos in the evening again and then to go out once more at first light but this time to watch the girls from inside the shed with the door shut so that I could see how they get down from the perches.

All the girls are on the top perch while Butterscotch has her extra half an hour out in the run

I thought that with no room for Butterscotch on the top perch it may at least stop her going so high. No such luck.

Butterscotch is now on top and Toffee and Emerald have been forced down to the old perch

There she was back on the top perch once more. Now it was a matter of seeing what happened in the morning.

I went in this morning before the girls were out. The automatic door was once more open but none of the girls were out. In the old coop the girls used to squeeze under the door as it opened.

I went inside and closed the door then crouched in the corner under the perch so that I was out of the girls way but could observe them. It was quite light from the window and the open pop door.

I had always assumed the girls would quickly come down the ladder and had imagined them behind the pop door waiting for it to open.

I was horrified by how difficult it was for them to get down. They didn’t use the ladder at all. They one by one took up a position in front of the door and took their time weighing up how to judge the jump down. They each dropped into the small space between the nest box and the bottom of the ladder. They landed with a thump and loose feathers flying. They then made their way round the ladder and out the pop door.

They were all down except Butterscotch who once more appeared to be struggling and agitated.

I couldn’t bear it any more and opened the door, hooked it back and stood out of her way. She once more flew over the patio and out into the garden part of the run.

I had no idea the girls didn’t use the ladder and wasn’t happy at all that they came down this way. I had to work out a better way and quick. I worried they could hurt themselves like this.

For a start I could see that the nest box must be moved as it’s in their way and making their landing spot smaller and more hazardous. I decided to thicken up the layer of shavings to soften their landing. Most important of all I felt the perches needed to be lower so that their jump down was much smaller, easier and safer.

The chicken shed before the changes

They were landing in the small gap between the nest box on the left and the ladder on the right.

The chicken shed as it is now after the changes

When I think about it in the wild they would roost in the top of trees but they would fly down. I think when first getting them used to the new shed they needed the perches high to encourage them to use them. I just hope that now they are used to going in the shed they will accept the lower perches.

The nest box is now in a new position behind the ladder on the right of the photo.

I will take photos again this evening and watch them jump down in the morning and then post again.