Ah. There’s nothing like a cozy bed on a cold, winter evening. That’s what a roost is for your backyard chickens at night. A safe place to snooze. The roost is their haven within the coop. The perch in the roost is their bed. Backyard chickens don’t need pillows or blankets, but they do need perches of the right size and type that are placed to maximize comfort, hygiene, and safety.
Benefits Of Being Off The Ground
Chickens are sound sleepers. Surprising, but true for a prey animal. They instinctively seek out a high spot to sleep in to protect them from predators. But predator protection isn’t the only benefit of sleeping off the ground.
When chickens sleep on a perch, they’re above the dirt and bacteria on the floor and breathing better air. They’re also away from possible infestation by parasites or bugs (Lice with your dream anyone? No thanks!) Being on a perch also prevents them from sitting in their own feces or having to move in the middle of the night to avoid the dirt. On a perch, it all just drops below; away from them.
Chicken Perch Size
The size of the perch you provide depends on the members of your flock. Generally, perches are 2 to 5 inches wide. Width is important. You want your chickens to comfortably sit on their feet on the perch, feet flat, but not be struggling to keep their balance.
The length of the perch along the wall can be whatever you wish. Just provide enough perches to accommodate all of your birds. Figure that each chicken needs at least 12 inches of space on the perch. If you have big breeds, you might want to increase that; with smaller breeds it can decrease a bit. So, if you have 10 Rhode Island Reds, then you need at least 120 inches (12 feet) of perch space. If the walls of the coop are only 4 feet, then you need four perches that are 3 feet long, three perches that are 4 feet long, or some other combination that gives you 12 feet of perches. Providing this minimum perching space helps to deter the chickens from feeling overcrowded. Don’t be surprised if your chickens huddle up in winter leaving empty perch space and spread out in summer to take up all perches.
The vertical space between multiple perches on a wall should be, at minimum, 15 inches for standard breeds. Let the size of the chickens in your flock guide you. Chickens on a perch should feel comfortable with the head room.
Chicken Perch Placement
Perches must be level. Uneven perches that slant put more pressure on one foot and increase the risk of a chicken losing balance.
Perches should be higher than nest boxes in the coop. Generally, the lower perch is 18 inches off the ground and the highest is no more than 4 feet. Perches usually aren’t more than 4 feet high to reduce the risk of injury should a chicken fall to the ground. Consider keeping a fluffy layer of bedding on the floor to cushion any falls; and keep the bedding clean. You also might want to keep something that’s easy to clean or dispose of directly beneath the perches to catch the falling excrement.
If you have heavy breeds, a small ramp might be needed. Heavier breeds might find it difficult or impossible to fly up to even a low perch. And the Silkie won’t have a chance without a ramp.
Chickens eliminate while on their perch, so never place perches over food or water stations, above doors you walk through, or over anything you don’t want feces landing on. If you’re placing multiple perches vertically on the same wall, stagger the placement and make the lower boards wider and the upper boards narrower. This helps minimize chickens on lower perches getting unpleasant surprises from their flockmates above. Lower perches are usually occupied by chickens lower in the hierarchy.
Place perches out of drafts or anything unpleasant. Put yourself in your chickens’ place — would you want your bed on that spot in the coop?
Chicken Perch Materials
Some common materials considered for perches are wood, plastic, and metal. The ideal perch is easy to stand on, not slippery, doesn’t sag, and doesn’t get too hot or too cold. Metal is a no-go because it gets too cold and too hot and is slippery. Plastic can vary depending on the type, but typical PVC can have temperature issues, sag if there’s too much weight, become brittle over time, and be slippery.
The winning material is wood!
That’s not to say wood doesn’t have any issues. It needs annual chicken-friendly treatment to protect from weather and also chicken-friendly treatment to prevent mites or other parasites making it a home. It should be sanded and inspected periodically to ensure no splinters are present.
Perch Happiness
Chickens sleep from dusk to dawn and rarely waken unless there’s a major disturbance. Providing them with comfortable perches they can easily access and sit on without having “dirt” land on them goes a long way to making that sleep as restful as possible.
