On Tue, 10 Apr 2007 11:55:04 GMT, "0tterbot" <spl@t.com> wrote:
>serious question!
>
>no matter how quiet i try to be when closing them up for the night, the
>little blighters are all awake.
>
>i am starting to wonder if they're like cows & hardly ever actually sleep,
>just rest.
They do sleep, often with their head tucked under a wing.
>my three youngest chickens still don't roost, either. i made them a spiffy
>new house with two lovely roosts, & all they thought about that was to be
>sure not to bump their heads. they all sleep in the nesting box. i don't
>know why i bother. apparently they'd have been perfectly happy if i'd just
>made them a nesting box with a door on it ;-)
>kylie
How old are they? Young chicks are taught to roost by their
mothers as soon as they are big enough to do so. You should
try putting them on the roost when it is dark, without turning a
light on or they will just jump back down. Some of them will
jump down or fall off anyway, but if you do it regularly some of
them should get the idea since there's an instinct for it to begin
with, and eventually they might all start doing it voluntarily if
they're not too old to learn already. It probably also has something
to do with the type of chicken you're dealing with...
