A nestbox full of chickens that shouldn't be there.

[Time-Out]

I have a problem... I have a stable with four grown hens, a cockerel and three younger girls (12 weeks old). There are two nestboxes - plenty, I hear you say.

Two of the hens are laying, the third has just gone broody and the fourth had a traumatising childhood, so hasn't started yet.

The chicks and the traumatised chicken constantly pile into one of the nestboxes, the broody is taking the other one up and the two layers are having to lay on the floor. We go twice a day to chase the imposters out of the nestbox, but they keep returning. What should I do?

I was thinking of bringing the broody girl home to try and break the broodiness, but the chicks will just use both nestboxes instead. ARGH!

 

[Judy]

I solved a similar problem by building a "broody pen," a cage or room about 2 meters by 2 meters, in one corner of the coop, for the broody, out of scraps of wood and chicken wire. Lets her set her eggs in peace and the eggs don't get disturbed. When the chicks were a couple of days old and wanted out of the cage, I let the mama raise the chicks in with the flock. Did this half a dozen times or so. You can put a nest in the broody pen, or just make a hollow in a corner with hay. Actually, broodies are more likely to accept a move like this if you take the whole nest or at least the nesting material with her.

If you don't want chicks, I'd probably try closing off the nests at night. I might even break down and give them a third nest, maybe a 5 gallon bucket on its side or whatever you have lying around.

They really should prefer sleeping on the roosts. Are they perhaps too narrow? Chickens' feet don't curl around roosts as completely as most birds' do and they seem to prefer a nice think branch or the flat side of a 2x4.

 

[Time-Out]

They all sleep on the perches at night, it's just during the day, the 3 12 week-old chicks and one older one cram into a nestbox. I don't know why they do it and I don't know how to stop them doing it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree to try to break the broody if you don't want her to hatch chicks. At least that solves one of your problems.

My guess is that your space is a little tight. The older hens will pick on the younger ones so the younger ones are trying to hide from the older ones, just stay out of the away so they don't get picked on. If you can't give them more space, then give them more hiding spaces. Additional nests, more perches either in the coop or run, raised things to hide under, or things to hide behind. Once they grow big enough to make their way in the pecking order this will sort itself out.

This behavior is normal with any chicks too immature to have any social standing in the pecking order, whether broody raised with the flock or brooder raised and integrated with the flock. That's whay you normally see younger chickens sort of in their own flock, separate from the adults. They are integrated in that the older hens acceot their right to live, but some hens can be real bullies and brutes to younger chickens.

My guess is that the other hen is so low in the pecking order that the others beat her up too. Some are just that weak in spirit. I don't have any suggestions for her, other than giving her extra places to hide too.

 

[Time-Out]

I wanted to take pics of the setup, but my phone stopped working. It's started again, so I'll take some when I go tonight. Adding extra perches is definitely not a possibility. There is about 22ft of perch space with only 6 chickens in there right now. There is a long perch and a ladder perch. The long perch is about 10ft long.

I'm using milk crates on cinder blocks for nest boxes. So based on what you said, Ridgerunner, I've removed the nest boxes, put one on the floor in a dark corner and left the other out (I've only got two laying hens in there at the minute). That way, if they use the cinder blocks to get out of the way of the other hen, they can do so.

Nb. One of the laying hens is actually lower than the chicks in the hierarchy. They bully her. It's all so complicated *sigh* why can everyone just get along? It's like putting my father, mother and sister all in the same room! (Just don't add my mum's mum or it becomes explosive)