Many of you probably
have small
ramps leading up into your chicken coop like we do, but can
chickens learn to utilize larger ramps? Diane wrote in with this
photo of a ramp she used to give her chickens access to a 1/3 of an
acre of forest on the other side of their fence. She wrote:
sides, and three feet high in the middle…it’s a pretty gentle
slope…. I coaxed them over the ramp (or physically walked them
up the ramp) this AM and then watched as they foraged like crazy.
An hour or so later, I noticed my Barred Rock wanted back into her
enclosure, so I went into the woods and gathered them all up and
returned them…no easy task!
“My question is this…if they have never used a ramp before, and the
ramp is not attached to the coop, will they learn to use the ramp to
gain access to the extended foraging area, or will I need to make a
door as you suggest and leave it open for them to come and go through?”
While I think that in
Diane’s case, a pophole is
an easier solution, I was intrigued by the idea of large chicken ramps
because I have a dream of creating a ramp in our chickens’ forest
pasture that goes up
six or seven feet, then across the driveway along
an elevated walkway, only to spit the chickens out in a new pasture on
the far side. So I suggested that Diane try leaving a trail of
treats up the ramp, spaced about three or four inches apart, to tempt
the chickens to cross by themselves in hopes that they could learn to
walk across the fence. She replied to my suggestion eight hours
later by saying:
have two who learned to use the
ramp by only going over it once! I think they remember what’s on
the other side, and if it’s an easy trip, they’ll be inclined to make
it.
“By the way, I think the two hens that crossed the ramp again, after
the first time over, WERE following the trail of treats I had left for
them!”
So, it sounds like a
ramp might be a possibility if you need to move
your chickens between non-contiguous pastures.
