Chicken Roosting Bars: All You Need To Know

You’ve heard the old saying before: “his chickens came home to roost.” But have you ever wondered what the roost at home looks like for those birds? The domestic chickens we keep today are similar to their ancient jungle fowl ancestors from Asia in many ways. One of those traits is that chickens still prefer to get up off the ground when resting or sleeping.

Resting in an elevated position on a tree branch helped to keep the red jungle fowl safe from predators, and though most domestic chickens don’t have much to worry about on that front, that instinct remains.

Accordingly, any good chicken coop needs roosting bars inside. And not just any bars will do! They need to be the right material, size, shape, they need a good ramp, and should be spaced properly for comfortable use and for safety.

There’s a lot that goes into selecting and installing roosting bars for your birds, so keep reading, and I’ll tell you everything in this guide.

Why Does Your Coop Need Roosting Bars?

Even though our domestic birds don’t have to deal with the same rate of predator attacks that their ancestors did – at least I hope not – they still need roosting bars for a number of reasons.

For starters, it’s important to their psychological well-being. Our chickens still instinctively want to get up off the ground so they can get some shut-eye at night. If forced to stay on the ground, they usually won’t get as much meaningful rest.

Additionally, roosting off the ground helps chickens stay warmer. Hot air rises, and inside an insulated coop, this air will be trapped a little closer to the ceiling. Plus, being in contact with the cold ground will result in a significant loss of body heat.

Lastly, birds that are on the ground are indeed more vulnerable to predators, especially rodents like mice and rats.

They are also more vulnerable to parasites of all kinds; litter on the coop floor is the perfect home for lice, fleas, mites, and other biting critters.

Roost bars are simply a must for a happy, healthy flock, and that’s all there is to it.

When Do Chickens Start Roosting?

Chickens don’t start roosting right away in life. As a rule
of thumb, the behavior will start between 2 months to 2 ½ months of age: This is when they are physically mature and confident enough to start properly climbing and seeking refuge off the ground at night.

However, introducing roosts to chicks much earlier can be beneficial.

If you have low “bleacher”-style roosts, chicks as young as a month old will love to climb and explore on them while they are awake, but they will likely still prefer to sleep much closer to the ground, all huddled up together.

In short, once your baby chicks hit the two-month marker, you should have those roosting bars installed and ready according to the guidelines I’ll share with you below.

What Should a Roosting Bar Be Made From?

Wood is the very best material for a roosting bar. That’s it. Wood is ideal, and so much better than all other alternatives that nothing else comes close.

Wood is durable and has a host of advantages for chickens, or rather I should say it lacks the pronounced disadvantages that other materials have.

Plastic is simply too slippery for chickens to maintain a good foothold on, even though it is easy to clean and cheap. Metal is a uniformly bad choice. It’s as slippery as plastic, but its thermal density means that it is far colder than either wood or plastic, and in cold conditions, it can actually facilitate frostbite.

Plus, metal can rust, and it will rust readily from the feces that chickens will deposit continuously at night while they sleep.

In contrast, wood is soft, easy to grip, and stays relatively warm to the touch, especially when chickens are in contact with it. It’s simply superior, and hardwoods or softwoods are fine.

With a little extra effort, it can be made very easy to clean while keeping splinters to a minimum. More on that in just a minute.

Round, Square or Flat?

Surprisingly, you want to go with a flat roosting bar. And I mean flat, like a plank. Most novice keepers or folks that don’t own chickens imagine a round roosting bar as ideal; that’s because chickens are birds, and when birds are sitting on branches, they curl their toes around the branch to hold on. Right? That’s not exactly the case for chickens…

With continuous selective breeding and many generations having gone by over hundreds and hundreds of years, chickens have better adapted to sleeping flat-footed, that is, with their feet mostly flat on the surface beneath them. Using a flat plank as your roosting bar will facilitate this.

Round roosting bars are also troublesome, even though they remain popular with some keepers, because they are a little harder for chickens to balance on. Chickens tend to rest their keel bone on the roosting bar, and a round surface will negatively impact their balance.

In bitterly cold conditions, chickens will curl their toes around a round bar, and that means they won’t be under their protective envelope of feathers. That can lead to frostbite!

Square roosting bars, unless very large, don’t have the same surface area as a simple flat plank. That’s all there is to it.

Whatever size boards or planks you use for your roosting bars, just take care to break the edges on the upper surface, rounding them over a little bit so that a chicken’s toes can comfortably curl over for a better grip if desired.

Roosting Bar Size

Assuming it is flat, the roosting bars in your coop should be no less than 2 inches wide for stability and safety. Any narrower risks accidents, and even this isn’t ideal for large breeds like Jersey Giants or Malays.

Ideally, the bars should be at least 3 ½ inches wide or wider. This will make it easier for your chickens to get into position and keep their balance while they are resting and sleeping.

To Paint or Not to Paint

The painting of roosting bars is a big point of contention with some keepers. Bottom line up front: I say paint it, but use the right paint.

Painting roosting bars makes them much easier to clean and helps to minimize splinters, which will form over time from wear and tear. Even little splinters can injure a chicken’s foot and lead to health issues like bumblefoot.

Your best bet for painting chicken coop roosts is to use a specialty, livestock-safe paint, chalk paint, or milk paint. The latter two are cheaper but won’t last as long. The former is more expensive but much longer lasting and a lot easier to clean, and it’s also non-toxic.

Make sure you paint the bars separately and keep them away from your birds to protect the paint job and your flock; many paints release irritating fumes while they are drying. Once they are totally dry, install and repaint as the finish starts to wear away.

How Far Apart Should They Be?

Horizontally, about a foot center to center. Make sure to stagger the bars in a staircase fashion so the chickens on the upper bars won’t poop on the birds on the lower bars. It can and will happen if there isn’t enough space between!

Vertically, a separation of about a foot is also ideal.

How Many Chickens Per Roosting Bar?

There isn’t a straight answer for this, if what you’re planning on doing is installing one roost bar for all of your birds. A quirk of chicken psychology is that they establish and enforce a very real pecking order.

Part of that order is that birds with higher flock status get the choice, high roosting bars. Birds lower in the pecking order are forced to sleep closer to the ground.

This is another instinctive behavior that, in all likelihood, you aren’t going to correct in your chickens.

Accordingly, I greatly prefer to install several bars in that aforementioned staircase fashion, even if the size of my flock doesn’t justify having that many; it makes it a lot easier for chickens to sort out sleeping arrangements themselves.

How Much Space Does a Chicken Need on a Roosting Bar?

Now, when it comes to the space that an individual chicken will need on the roosting bar, you should aim for a guideline of about 8 inches at the minimum. This will allow your birds to rest comfortably beside each other.

But as you might have expected, more space is always good. This will allow the sorting of sleeping positions as detailed in the previous section, but it also allows chickens to spread out when they need to.

They can get too hot in the summertime, while in the wintertime, they will huddle together to stay warmer.

Leaving only the minimum amount of space across all bars to account for the current size of your flock leaves no room for new arrivals or room for them to spread out. Don’t do it!

How High Should Roosting Bars Be?

At least 2 feet above the floor of the coop. This will improve psychological and physical comfort and keep your birds out of the reach of most external parasites living down there on the ground. Remember to place successive bars one foot higher than the previous.

Prevent Falls with Ladders or Ramps

All chickens want to use roosting bars, from the smallest bantams to the biggest heavyweight breeds. But falls from on high can seriously injure your birds, and such injuries tend to be far worse for breeds that are poor flyers or very heavy.

In my experience, heavy breeds especially tend to be more prone to falling, and when they do fall, the consequences are worse.

Brahmas, Cochins, Orpingtons, Jersey Giants, and Malays are all seriously heavy chickens that can tip the scales at 10 lbs or more. Falling or hopping down from even a couple of feet off the ground can easily injure a foot or toe.

The best way to prevent this is by setting up a ramp or ladder that makes it easier and safer for your birds to reach the roosts and move between levels. This is another good reason to go with a wider bar in the first place, too.

Regular Cleaning of Roost Bars is a Must

If you’ve kept chickens for any length of time, you already know that they poop all the time. What you might not know is that they do most of their pooping while they are asleep or resting at night. Why do you think the coop requires so much mucking out?

It follows, then, that roost bars are going to get very dirty very quickly, especially if you’ve made them a little wider than absolutely necessary in the interests of comfort and stability.

In the morning, once your birds head out, those bars will likely be encrusted with poop and filth, both deposited by the chickens themselves at night and tracked over them by their feet.

Make routine cleaning and disinfection of the bars a regular chore, and you will dramatically cut down on instances of bumblefoot and other infections.

I wipe down the bars in my coop with chicken-safe antibacterial spray no less than three times a week. It only takes a minute, and it makes a big difference!

Venting Should Be Above the Highest Roost

Something you might have to consider based on the size of your flock, the design of your coop, and how many bars you want to install is where the ventilation in the coop is positioned relative to the roosts themselves.

This sounds like a nitpicky thing, but it’s actually quite important. The rule is that you want the ventilation to be even with or higher than the highest roost bar. This will allow harmful ammonia and other gasses to evacuate, freshening the air.

If the ventilation is too low, the air around the roosts above will be noxious, irritating, and eventually sickening your birds.

Install your roost accordingly, and don’t be afraid to add additional vents if required.

Don’t Place Anything Else Over or Under the Bars!

The last piece of advice I will give you concerning roosting bar setup is to avoid placing anything above the level of the highest roosting bar or directly below any of the bars.

Remember the pooping issue we talked about? Anything that’s underneath the bars will be utterly soiled and filthy come morning, and anything that’s placed above the highest bars might encourage chickens to try and roost there.

This latter issue is entirely common when you’ve got your nesting boxes placed a bit too high. You always, always want to make sure roosting bars are above the highest nesting boxes; otherwise, some of your birds will just try to sleep in there.

This, of course, will disrupt or enrage the hens that are trying to lay there, and often lead to eggs showing up in undesirable and out-of-the-way locations.