Things are always a bit of trial and error to find out what works best with chickens. We put up a high shelf for the girls to perch on because I was worried that if we had a single perch they wouldn’t be able to pass each other and in the limited space a girl could get knocked to the floor.
When we had the high perch outside on the patio area I used to see this happen and worried a girl might get hurt. We ended up resolving it by putting up other perches so that they could step round each other.
The shed has a much more limited space and we need the ladder to be able to be raised up for cleaning.
However the problem now is that the poop splatters the back of the shed. Most of it drops down the gap at the back but some remains on the shelf. During the longer winter hours in the shed I don’t want the girls sat in poop plus we would like to keep the shed as clean as possible. It needed a rethink. I know, Steve, you already questioned this from the start but we have to learn as we go.
The back of the shed is getting splattered
I said to my husband that obviously a perch would solve all these problems but it worried me that the girls wouldn’t be able to pass each other while trying to get to their desired position and there is a danger of a girl getting knocked to the floor.
He suggested the answer would be to put up two perches parallel to each other so that they could use the second perch to pass each other. Brilliant!
I sanded out the poop marks on the back of the shed and my husband fitted two perches.
We now have two parallel perches with a wider gap behind the one at the back
Emerald was the first to investigate as she is always the first one in
She looks a bit wobbly but I think they will soon get used to it
Speckles gets to the top perch
Toffee joins them but seems a bit unsure
Speckles is determined to keep her place on the top perch even though she has been moved from her original position
Butterscotch has yet to make an appearance
Butterscotch looks like she wants to join them on the top perch
butterscotch has also made it to the top perch
It took a lot longer than usual for the girls to get settled with lots of coming and going from the shed but in the end they settled with all of them on the top perch. I think this proves the perches are a success because the girls all want to be on the top perch and now they can.
I had one last peek at the girls after our evening meal and they were all still in the same position and settled.
This morning at six o’clock I could hear Butterscotch shouting. I was just trying to decide if I should go out and check on them when it went quiet again. At nearly half past six I could once more hear Butterscotch shouting but it soon went quiet again. At quarter to seven I went out to them.
I checked the little coops as I do every morning just in case there is an early egg. There was Butterscotch’s cream coloured, round egg. That explains the earlier shouting before and after her egg laying. She laid her first egg the day before yesterday so it looks like she is now in the swing of it and could be a good egg layer. It also shows that she is now settled in the flock.
Cleaning the shed was so easy this morning with all the poop below the top perches and none on the back of the shed. I am really pleased with how these new perches are working and think we have now perfected the shed.
I think the girls will soon get used to the perches and settle at bedtime as easily as before and it was so good to see the new girls roosting with the rest of the flock. This is one more step towards a united flock.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
You sanded off the poop marks ?
Would you like to come and do my cleaning ?
Seriously it is a great idea.
It was quite hard work actually but I can’t have the chicken shed getting dirty! I probably spend more time cleaning the chickens than the house.
P.s. I’m glad she didn’t lay it on the new perch.
I was quite impressed that she knows where to go after the confusion with her first egg.
Looks like Speckles likes to move around a lot…
Also, doesn’t Topaz shout too when she lays an egg, or is it just if you try to remove the egg? Anyway, Butterscotch sounds like she’s be shouting “Hey mom, look at this!”
I’m also laughing at the last two pictures with Barley getting sandwiched into the wall, and then her head down. Kinda makes her look like she’s falling off of the perch!
Barley was just looking down but she did look a bit squashed. I took more photos but didn’t put them all on as there would be too many but the two photos before that one had both Peaches and barley looking at Butterscotch as if to say “what is she doing here”, they were both looking exactly the same as if in sync.
Topaz doesn’t lay eggs, she just sits on everyone else’s eggs as she is in a perpetual, but not fully committed, broody state. She laid six eggs last year and eight eggs this year then spends the entire summer waiting to sit on eggs and comes out shouting when I remove them. She also gives up being broody and comes straight out when I go in with treats so wouldn’t even make a good broody if I needed one (which I don’t).
She is pretty loud but Butterscotch is on another level. We sleep with the window open but the run is the entire length of the garden away and Butterscotch woke me up. She sort of honks like a cross between a duck and a goose. I forgive her though as she laid an egg.
Well, she does look duckish…;)
My cochin, Peach makes honking noises too, and a weird noise that I can only say is a chicken trying to be a ninja. Waaaahhh instead of hi-yaaaa!
It is amazing the range of sounds they have. Honey is so quiet even though she chats all the time and some of them, I call it shouting, because, oh my, it can be so loud!
Any silkies/silkie crosses that I’ve had have always been good in the voice department – yet exceptionally gentle when broody and removed from nests. Have been away for a week and have loved reading the updates. Hope you hit double figures in egg numbers from Butterscotch before she thinks of doing what goldtops do!
Butterscotch laid her first egg, missed a day then has laid three days in a row. I am thinking that at last I have another good layer but as you say that could be just until, well I am not even going to say it!!! All I can say is that no chick can lay less than Topaz, so the bar is already set. She is already half way to Topaz’s record for a year in just two weeks.
As you say, loud girl though. Who would have thought that tiny silkies would be loud, not something I had imagined. She does seem to be a gentle girl though and it’s Speckles I feel a bit sorry for as she is bottom girl now (I know some girl always has to be bottom) but she is nervous of the girls and of me.
She stays apart from the girls a lot of the time and I have even seen Butterscotch chase her away sometimes even though they are together a lot. It seems that although they have a bond from coming in together, Butterscotch is just showing her that actually, she is just above her.
She has moments though of running to the treats and sneaking something away when the others are not paying attention so I suppose it just needs time for her to gain confidence. Also she manages to get the top perch some nights where as Butterscotch finds it more difficult to find a big enough gap.
Over all I think it has gone really well but it will take time for the new girls to be completely united. It is a bit of them and us at the moment but I am sure eventually the flock will be as one again.