# Rooster wont go up on roosts, sleeps on the floor??



## Dazlin (Nov 26, 2007)

I'm a little concerned about this rooster. He's a 6 month old cochin, and hasn't gone up to roost with the others. I noticed he sits on floor a lot during the day. He's growing very good and eating and goes after the food I throw out with no problem. I checked his feet, and I think he has 3 toes on each foot. Is there anything else I should check for? I have other cochins also 6 mos. (hens) and everyone goes up to roost at night, except him. I go in when it's dark, either at night, or early morning, and he's always on the floor.
Late bloomer, or something not right??


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## Lady89 (Feb 22, 2014)

My rooster sleeps up in the barn rafters and has started teaching the trick to my hens. I sometimes thing roosters just don't like to roost where they should as a mater of the pride, that they take in driving us crazy


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## aart (Oct 20, 2012)

Dazlin said:


> I'm a little concerned about this rooster. He's a 6 month old cochin, and hasn't gone up to roost with the others. I noticed he sits on floor a lot during the day. He's growing very good and eating and goes after the food I throw out with no problem. I checked his feet, and I think he has 3 toes on each foot. Is there anything else I should check for? I have other cochins also 6 mos. (hens) and everyone goes up to roost at night, except him. I go in when it's dark, either at night, or early morning, and he's always on the floor.
> Late bloomer, or something not right??


How much roost length do you have for how many birds??
How big is roost? I like a 2x4 wide side up.
Is the roost easy to get up to _and _ get down from? My coop is narrow so I had to put ramps up to the roost so they could get down without flying into the wall..... some use the ramps, some have figured how to jump/fly down without crashing.


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## Dazlin (Nov 26, 2007)

Plenty of room. Roughly it's 24 ft. by 14ft.
Lots of roosts on three sides, plus a lower roost below nest boxes.
I have 13 birds...all which roost on two roosts...no problems. I've been building coops for a long time. There's no problem with the perches/roosts. Have had several generations in this coop with no problem.
I checked his feet again this morning...I see 3 toes. I'm going to check the father's feet, and see if there's any difference.


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## troy n sarah tx (Dec 31, 2005)

We have 10 hens and 3 roosters. The 3 roosters were the last ones to learn to roost at night. We used to pen them at night to keep them away from predators, then the hens started to roost in the trees at night (and it got too stressful for us and them to knock them down), but the roosters kept going into the pen for months. It took them about 3 months before they started roosting with the hens.

It always made me chuckle, our roosters wouldn't roost. 

Give him a chance. He will figure it our eventually. 

Sarah


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

It's a Cochin thing. When your hens get older and heavier they probably won't go up either. Try putting roost poles, nice and wide like a two by six, about six inches off the ground. This will keep them out of the dirt. They not only are too heavy to fly well, but they don't like landing from very high, it hurts their feet and legs. This is one of the main selling points of Cochins, they don't fly up and nest in animal feeders, knock stuff off shelves in the barn, and things like that.


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## brownegg (Jan 5, 2006)

Yep, same thing with the brahmas...I have prolly 12 to 16 inches of straw on the floor to keep them from freezing. I don't know where you are, but here they will freeze their feet if you don't have a nice toasty bed of straw for them.


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## cowboyt (Jan 19, 2015)

I have buffs and the dominant rooster is up with the hens. The other roosters usually stay on the ground or pretty far away from him.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

Well he SHOULD have 4 toes. 3 forward and 1 back. Does he look up? How does he act when the rest of the flock goes up? Does he try? Does his wings work right? Do you put him on the roost at night?


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