Chickens changing roosts

[N8than]

Good Afternoon Everyone,
I am a new chicken keeper and have had them for about a year now. I have gained so much knowledge from this site and posts, and now have a potential problem I would love some feedback on. My chickens are about 8 months old ( I have 6 red sex links) and I have had them for about 6 months. They have been doing great on their roost at night, though about a week ago 2 of them started roosting on the perch outside of the nesting box. I wouldn't normally care, though they are now filling the edge of the nesting box with things other than eggs. I live in upstate ny and wasn't sure if this was a common thing in the winter, or if there are other variables at play. I have not noticed other behaviors, though they have stopped going outside with the snow we have had. I do open the coop to the pen every day, though they tend to stay inside. Any thoughts? Thank you.

 

[azygous]

Which is why most of us discourage our chickens from roosting or sleeping in the nest boxes. To nip this behavior in the bud, you need to block off the nests at night.

I've found that I'm required to block mine off every night from here to eternity to keep a couple of opportunists from crawling into the nests to sleep. If I forget the gates, there they are, camped in the nests, looking at me as if to say, "Well, you left the gate off, so I thought you wanted me to sleep here."

You might want to observe what goes on at roosting time. It may be these opportunists of yours are escaping some roosting time conflict. You might solve it by adding another perch away from the madding crowd.

 

[janz70]

could be a few things but first I would check the ends of the perches for redmite - smear vasilene on the ends and then check the following day - they will get trapped in it.