Poorly chicken

[ttmattsson]

My ladies are having problems getting around due to the plastic roosting bars in their cube mk2.

Does anyone have ideas on how to make it better for them?

[Cat tails]

Some here made a wooden ramp, with cross bars for grip.

[ttmattsson]

Thank you!

If anyone has a picture of wooden bars, please upload it so I can get some ideas. I hate building stuff. I'm really bad at it.

[Patricia W]

Ikea make wooden shoe racks.  Could you adapt? 

[ttmattsson]

That's not a bad idea. Maybe even cheaper. Thank you for that

[The Dogmother]

I've heard this said before about the cube mark 2, but I can't recall what the bars look like - a friend has one (she hates it too) so I'll have a look next time I am there.

[ChickenMama22]

No slip bathtub stickers? https://a.co/d/1hue0Bb

I've just ordered mine the other day, so will need to come up with an idea myself. I was thinking about adding some straw bedding on top of the bars maybe?  

[The Dogmother]

I wouldn't use straw - the bars need to be open and with an airflow through and underneath them to carry away the ammonia in their poo. Straw will contain mites, so best avoided. Stick to the roosting bars as they are, with just some bedding such as Aubiose in the poo tray underneath.

[ttmattsson]

I ended up making a new one for my girls.

I used two threaded rods, wooden batten 2x2 (correct english?, not sure) and screw-nuts.
It was very easy using the nuts to get the right gap between each bar.

[Beantree]

Sounds like a great solution to me @ttmattsson. Hard plastic doesn't work for roosting; wood is definitely the best. We have a plastic coop and we wrapped the plastic perch in soft PVC tape. Then the chickens started to use it.

[MrGreen]

Hi. @Beantree just wondering what pvc tape you used? I know there is a lot of different ones. 
Thanks

[Beantree]

PVC tape is as it says. It's a thermoplastic, so any PVC will be fine. We used a very wide and thick tape that was sold in an agricultural merchants, but the stuff you buy everywhere is still PVC, just needs more wrapping, if it's thinner and not as wide.

You could go a step further to give them a perch they can really grip. Fit pipe insulation and then bind it in PVC tape.