Still not perching

[greenarmy]

Hi i have had my hens now for 5 weeks they are all laying and getting on great, great characters!! but still not roosting on the perch
I have to lift them on every night and then they are fine, perch is about a foot high, the birds are warrens, any clues how to get them to do it themselves
regards wayne

[RichmondHens]

Can you lower the perch a bit to encourage them? Or put a small branch on the floor which they can use instead to get them started. Some chickens just don't like perching, full stop, particularly heavier breeds.

You have Warrens, if I remember rightly, and they will probably have been raised artificially and slept on the floor all their lives, without a mother hen to teach them how to roost. So they just need a little training, that's all. They will work it out in time.

[lynda66]

keep putting them on .... they will get it eventually, mine roosted on a perch nearly all the time when they were babies in the house .... but when they went to the big house, they didn't get it for ages so i just put them on every night, once one got it, the others soon followed.

[Suechooks]

I use an old car tyre to teach the ex-batts to roost. easy to clean too and useful in the runs for entertainment.