Make roosts 5-8 cm wide with rounded edges, set 30-60 cm off the floor and 30 cm apart if there are several bars, and keep them higher than the nest boxes and not above food or water. Provide one 30×30×30 cm nest box for every 3-4 hens, lined with straw or shavings, so hens lay in the boxes and sleep on the roost.
Part of Barn & Livestock Housing Design
Roost and nest box layout is the placement of the sleeping bars and laying boxes inside a coop so that birds sleep in one place and lay in another.
Chickens Sleep On The Highest Thing They Can Reach, So The Roost Must Be The Highest
Chickens roost at night on elevated bars. If a nest box is higher than the roost, they will sleep in it and soil it. That one rule sets the whole layout: roost highest, nest boxes lower, food and water away from beneath the roost because chickens defecate while roosting.
What You Need
- Roost bars 5-8 cm wide with rounded edges, not sharp ones; chickens grip with their feet
- Nest boxes 30×30×30 cm, lined with straw or wood shavings
- A landing perch at the front of each box and an overhanging lip so eggs don’t roll out
- A removable roost, so the bar can be taken outside and cleaned
Method: Lay Out The Interior
Step 1: Set the roost height. Mount roost bars 30-60 cm off the floor.
Step 2: Space parallel bars. Space them 30 cm apart if there is more than one.
Step 3: Keep food and water out from under the roost. Droppings fall straight down.
Step 4: Place the nest boxes so the roost is above them. A nest box is conventionally mounted 45-60 cm off the floor with a small landing perch at the front, and darkened, enclosed boxes encourage laying. Those heights collide with a 30-60 cm roost (see the worked example), so the simple answer is to keep the boxes low and the roost clearly above their tops.
Step 5: Make the box tops impossible to roost on. Slope the box lid so hens cannot perch on top.
Worked Example
The two height ranges conflict. A 30 cm box mounted with its floor at 45 cm has its top at 45 + 30 = 75 cm; mounted at 60 cm, its top is at 60 + 30 = 90 cm. Every roost height in the 30-60 cm range is below those tops, so a raised box and a roost inside the stated range cannot satisfy “roost higher than the boxes”.
Two layouts do work. In the first, the boxes sit on or near the floor and the roost is at 30-60 cm above them. In the second, the boxes stay raised and the roost is built higher than the box tops (above 75 cm for a box at 45 cm), which is outside the stated roost range. No sourced height is given here for the second layout. Whichever you choose, slope the box lids so hens cannot perch on top.
Common Mistakes
- Roosts lower than nests — hens sleep in the nest boxes.
- Sharp-edged roosts — foot injury, and cold toes in winter if the bar is narrow.
- Roost over the water or feed — droppings foul it.
- Flat box lids — hens roost on top and soil the boxes below.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Predator-Proofing — the other half of a safe coop
- Combine with: Poultry Keeping — egg collection and flock care