We lower the perches yet again

It’s taking a bit of fine tuning to get the chicken shed just right for the girls. Since we lowered the perches I have watched the girls come out a few times in the morning and I felt that it was still a bit of a struggle. It was still taking a while for them all to negotiate their way down and I felt that Butterscotch was still struggling with it.  She was always last and would take ages to take the plunge and jump down.

I decided to try the perches a bit lower until I could find the comfortable jump down height for Butterscotch.

The perches are lowered again

The perches started out at the top of the ladder’s uprights, then moved down to the top rung and now to the next rung down. This should be a really easy and safe height for Butterscotch to jump down.

It was now just a matter of seeing what the girls made of it. I hoped that moving the perches down gradually would get them used to the change.

They were not best pleased with this change and there was a lot of going in and back out again.

Emerald and Topaz were the first to check it out

Topaz and Emerald went back outside many times before they settled as did Toffee when she came in. Peaches and Barley were last to go in and seemed most dubious about the new perches. Butterscotch was the only one that went in, took up a position and stayed put.

Honey joins them

The ladder now has the most desired position

Emerald can’t find a position that she is happy with

They all now want to be on the ladder

The final position

I went out this morning as they were coming out and it was a much quicker process.

Butterscotch jumps down

As usual Butterscotch was the last to come down but she got her head right down, then dropped easily to the floor. I felt this was a lot better for her.

It now threw up yet another problem though. The girls that were on the top rung of the ladder jumped down from the top rung to land very tight up against the bottom of the ladder. I realised that it was now the ladder throwing up the problems and now that the perches are lower the ladder is actually no longer needed.

The girls can easily jump up on to the perches and the ladder is now just in the way. We decided to take the ladder out and put in another perch across the corner where the ladder had been.

The ladder has now gone and there is a new perch across the corner

I will see how it goes at bedtime tonight. I am hoping that now all the perches are exactly the same height it should be easier for the girls to settle in the evening and it will definitely be easier for them to jump down in the morning. Watch this space!