How can I dissuade a chicken from perching (and pooping) in wrong place?

juleeque

Chirping
5 Years
Jul 14, 2014
66
14
84
My husband built a coop from a couple different plans and we had just one uh-oh....The hens like to fly/jump up onto the outside of the nest boxes or the window sills and like to perch there at night and consequently leave poop in unwanted areas, such as the little ladder. Is there something I can do or put on these areas to dissuade them from perching there? They have two very nice perches.
thx julie
 
How wide are the roosts? And you could put something on top of the window sills that is angled so that they can't roost on it. Not very pretty, but should be effective.
 
The hens like to fly/jump up onto the outside of the nest boxes or the window sills consequently leave poop in unwanted areas, Is there something I can do or put on these areas to dissuade them from perching there?
They like high perches so the higher the better and the more apt they are to use. Maybe raise your existing perches to make them more inviting.
 
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We have two perches, one lower then the nesting boxes and the other higer. We built a screened cabinet above the nest box, preventing the birds from roosting there and it gives us some storage space.
They like high perches so the higher the better and the more apt they are to use. Maybe raise your existing perches to make them more inviting.

x2
 
My husband built a coop from a couple different plans and we had just one uh-oh....The hens like to fly/jump up onto the outside of the nest boxes or the window sills and like to perch there at night and consequently leave poop in unwanted areas, such as the little ladder. Is there something I can do or put on these areas to dissuade them from perching there? They have two very nice perches.
thx julie

Welcome - this is a common issue - and generally one that is easily addressed, but the actual solution varies based on the setup involved, so photos of your setup would be helpful in offering suggestions - show the roosts that you have available as well as the areas that the birds are using against your wishes.
 
5 of my 6 Buff Orps started roosting on the roost (above the poop board! hooray!) all by themselves. Actually I put one of the girls up on the roost one night, the others followed her up gradually all by themselves. All but one dummy, she just preferred roosting on the water bucket, which hangs from the ceiling on the other side of the coop. For one week I climbed into the coop and dutifully plucked her (bad choice of words?) from the top of the bucket and moved her to the roost. Last night and again tonight I found her on the roost with the rest of the chickens. She figured it out, just needed a little training.
 
thx for the ideas. I looked up 'poop boards' and may try to incorporate that into the coop. I ended up laying a large stick across and so far, as one said, not very pretty, but functional.
 
ok, back to the drawing board....so they are still getting up on the nesting boxes and pooping...and they are bigger now which means...bigger poop!. So is there anything they dislike stepping on? (nothing cruel). I was thinking of velcro. Would that feel icky under their feet that they would stay off boxes? Sand paper??
 
I had a area they were using that was above the nest box too.
Some porch screen material stapled in a way to prevent them from getting their worked for me.
good luck
 
my chicken pen backs up to my master bedroom. 3 of my 6 chickens like to sit on my window sill and poop all over it. any suggestions to stop them?
 

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