I'm drawing up my plans (and developing my materials list) for my chicken coop--can't tell you how exciting this is--and I had a quick question for all of you experienced chicken owners.I'm planning to put two roost poles in about a foot apart from each other. My question is do I or should I plan to put them at the same level like parallel bars or at a tiered level like uneven bars?Since I'm new to chickens, I'm relying on your vast experience, to suggest whether the chickens would have problems or issues reaching one bar over the other if they are parallel.Either way will work in the design.
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Your chickens will generally roost in the highest possible place, which is why you need to have them higher than your nest boxes-- if you don't, there will be a ton of poop in the nest boxes every morning. Each bird needs 8"-12" of roost bar space, so it's possible that you will only need one bar (many people overestimate this). Your dominant chickens will usually take the higher bar if you have a tiered system, make sure they're far enough apart that your other chickens don't get pooped on. One foot seems too close to me, I'd go with at least 16". I don't think parallel bars would be a problem, but again, I would space them farther than one foot apart to be sure the chickens can get to them easily.
either way would probably work. Mine ignore them completely and stand on top of the roost wall instead. For some reason you need to make sure your roost poles are higher than you nest boxes though. Not sure why, but that is what they say.
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