Hi I need help. My chickens are using the rafters as a roost and they are pooping in my hanging feeder. i tryed everything. any aqdvice is really apresiated thanks drew

-- drew (ata1hunt@aol.com), September 30, 2001

Answers

This may be a loosing battle because chickens tend to roost wherever they want, and it seems the higher the better! is there some way you could kind of shield the feeder from up top????

-- Suzy in Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), September 30, 2001.

Move the feeder.

-- Joe (CactusJoe001@AOL.com), September 30, 2001.

Clip their wings? :) tang

-- tang (tang@mtaonline.net), September 30, 2001.

Tack up netting of some kind on the bottom of the rafters to keep them down on their roosts. Fruit tree netting works well for this.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), September 30, 2001.

Drew, DO NOT clip both wings on your chickens. If you do that they still can fly up in the rafters, with more effort. Take sissors and cut the long flight feathers as close as you can without cutting into the skin ON ONE WING ONLY! This will unbalance the chicken's flying, and keep them out of your rafters. Then you can build a roost for them with the bottom perch about 2 ft. off the ground. Once they have attained the bottom perch, they can walk up to the next ones.

-- Judy in IN (whileaway3@cs.com), September 30, 2001.

I don't think my solution will help you, since my birds have pens to go into, not a barn, but I'll give it a go anyhow.

Pen the birds for 3 weeks. Always keep feed in the hoppers. (Important!) I've never had to chase down a bird; at dusk, they all go into their pens to roost on their own.

If the pen is moved, or you move to a different house, the 3 week jail time has to be repeated.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), October 01, 2001.

My coop dosen't have rafters so I don't have that problem, but my friend has stapled chicken across the rafters so that her chickens can't get up there. That way they have to use the roosts.

lian

-- Lian (lianmowyr@hotmail.com), October 06, 2001.