Yeah, you will need to make sure they know how to roost (perch). Something else that will help is that, at least in my experience, chickens like to get up high, even during nap time in the run. So, I put a couple long, low sticks in a couple of the corners of their run and they like to hop up on those. This will encourage roosting at night as well. Third tip, I have heard that putting a curtain in front of the boxes will discourage sleeping there. Show your older girls the boxes after you put up the curtain, but not the youngsters, it may work. I never tried it, but just what I've heard. If it gets really bad and you dont want to deal with it, you can always seperate the youngsters off at night with a perch to discourage to discourage sleeping in the boxes. I blocked off my nest boxes after I put my girls out in the coop and only just undid them when I brought home an older hen I got about 3 weeks ago. Thankfully, the pullets were getting old enough to lay anyways. None of mine sleep there now because they know it's for laying. Keeping them blocked when they are young (if all your hens are the same age) but still visible (I used sticks and wire) has worked great for me. Also when my girls were chicks, I used a small, low perch in their brooder (a parakeet perch works great) and as soon as they started fledging and maintaining their balance, we would put them on the perch to get them used to it young and that worked great. Good luck Canadian chicks!my four girls are 20 weeks and my other four are 10 weeks. the older ones sometimes jump in the nesting box and then jump back out bt the younger ones are the ones that are sleeping in them they are full of poop and they all also peck and eat the wood shavings that are in the nesting boxes. I put golf balls in the nesting box to encourage them to lay but any time one of the older ones goes to sit in the box the four little ones go anf lay beside them like its a bed. i think the little ones might be discouraging them from laying eggs. but i dont know how to discourage them from sleeping in there because i want my older ones to use them.
Make sure the girls are getting lots of calcium and are on layer feed. Soft or broken eggs are not uncommon though.
