chickens kick all the nest material from nest box?

[jsr5]

I have two Mille Fluer D'Uccles and two Red Cochin hens that will totally empty out the nesting area of the coop. I have put pine shavings, and straw both and even some hay. but they will scatch kick every bit of it out of the nesting area of the coop leaving it completely bare I mean they do a better job than I could do with a broom! even in cold weather they are laying their eggs on the bare wood which of course leads to frozen eggs. but more importantly it drives me nuts trying to figure out why they do this. Our big girls in the other coop like to nestle down in the pine shavings to lay eggs. is it just a bantam quirk?

 

[Spartan22]

Does your nesting boxes have perching lip? I normally have 2-3” of lip/perch at the entrance of our nesting boxes to reduce the sliding out of bedding materials when the hens are rearranging the nests to their preferences.

 

[jsr5]

Its a tractor store damaged and cheap one. the boxes have a lip about 1.5 inches but they don't stop with just the boxes there is a little area that could be used for roosting that has a plastic slide out for easy cleaning about 2.5feet square and they clean that off kicking all the material completely out onto the ground . It's not really hurting anything the quirky ness just drives me nuts or Nuttier at least.

 

[Spartan22]

Maybe place some non smooth/non slippery liner on your nest, Might help retain the nesting materials in and also add extra higher lip like 2x4s or such. Majority of my layers rearranged the nests an bury their eggs under which I’m thankful for during pretty cold days eliminating breakages.

 

[Criticalicious]

Try some nesting pads covered with pine shavings. Mine were flattening and emptying one of their nest boxes, but they can't kick out the nest pad.

 

[SueT]

Tho my nests are deep, (plastic milk crates) the hens like to push all the bedding to the sides, leaving a bare center. I am thinking of putting pieces of carpet in there since I have odd scraps leftover.

 

[Spartan22]

Tho my nests are deep, (plastic milk crates) the hens like to push all the bedding to the sides, leaving a bare center. I am thinking of putting pieces of carpet in there since I have odd scraps leftover.

Hi Sue watch out for those left over carpets, sometime they unravel in long pieces that might end being peck/eaten by your chickens. Another thing, could had been treated with some chemicals/stain resistant stuff that might affect them due to strong odors. I used to work for a flooring store in college and had seen this.

 

[SueT]

Hi Sue watch out for those left over carpets, sometime they unravel in long pieces that might end being peck/eaten by your chickens. Another thing, could had been treated with some chemicals/stain resistant stuff that might affect them due to strong odors. I used to work for a flooring store in college and had seen this.

Thanks, good points. Also, if they are scratching around, they could get their toes caught. I think I will just leave it as is and keep adding bedding. No eggs have broken or frozen in them.

 

[SueT]

Hi Sue watch out for those left over carpets, sometime they unravel in long pieces that might end being peck/eaten by your chickens. Another thing, could had been treated with some chemicals/stain resistant stuff that might affect them due to strong odors. I used to work for a flooring store in college and had seen this.

Thanks, good points. Also, if they are scratching around, they could get their toes caught. I think I will just leave it as is and keep adding bedding. No eggs have broken or frozen in them.

 

[jsr5]

Its not a huge issue really I'm about to put them in a real coop instead of the dinky farm store thing and had planned to put foam insulation on the outside covered with ply wood if I continued to use that one. Was mostly wondering if other people had experienced this quirky behavior. Knew of the reasoning behind it. or In general start conversation with folks I am starting to feel familliar and friendly with. I just figured it was my quirky lil duccles thing or somthing like that. Not poo pooing all the helpful hints and stuff those are all filed away for later use. and yess when I build the nest boxes there is always and lip and a little sitting roost like board out there for them to initially jump up or down to. some of my nesting boxes are weirdly repurposed stuff like dresser/chests of drawers (which I really like they can be had cheeeeep ) that work really well and are actually prefered over the plastic store bought wall hanging things my wife got. (puffed up with pride a little bit there ) and the one I"m going to use in the new hobbitses coop (what I call my fuzzy foot bantams) is actually a converted hutch off of the desk I was gotten by my parents when I was like 9 or 10 (yeah old enough to be built out of real wood ) If I ever get to where I can get the pics from my phone to my puter (computer challenged) and I get done putting it together I'll post some pics (before it gets dirty so you all don't yell at me ) Ok done with another rambling post Thanks for all the good conversation already and to come.