Lulu's Couch Stairs

Lulu seems to have trouble sleeping like a chicken.  Last year, when my cousin Tina was staying with us, Lulu started falling off her roost in the kitchen during the night.  I don't know if she was trying to move around and would lose her balance, but I would sometimes hear a noise and get up and find her laying on the floor.

We started letting her sleep on her table in the living room.  The problem with that was that when Lulu was ready to get up in the morning, she would jump onto the couch and start squawking until I got up to get her down.  The couch was too high for her to jump/fly down and the coffee table was also in the way. 

Since I like to sleep in during the winter, it would frustrate me to get woken up to take Lulu off the couch so she could go to sleep behind my bed until noon. 

Now tell me what chicken can't sleep on a roost and sleeps in until noon?  Only Lulu!

Well I decided to come up with a plan so Lulu could get on and off the couch by herself.  I found some low boxes that usually hold grapes or strawberries  and I decided to build her a stairway.

 

 

I stacked the boxes and covered them with some old towels so Lulu doesn't skid on the cardboard.

 



 

I started by using peanuts to bribe Lulu to climb the stairs.  She got the idea and started using the boxes regularly.  Here is Lulu on the first step going up.

 

 

I caught Lulu in the act, flying up to the next step.  It takes her quite awhile to get up or down as she seems to need to encourage herself that she can do it.

 

Here is Lulu ready to hop onto the couch.  You can see her table beside her.  She doesn't seem to have any trouble hop/flying from the couch onto the table.

Finally made it!

"Whew!", sighs Lulu, "that was hard work!"

So now Lulu gets herself off the couch in the morning and grabs a few bites of food before heading into my room to sleep behind the bed.  She is very quiet because I don't hear her until I wake up and call her name.  Then she chirps a couple times before going back to sleep.  What a life!  ;)