chickens pooing in laying boxes arghhh!

[clairegareth]

How old? Do they have roosting bars that are higher then the nesting boxes? Can they access the roosting bars, meaning are the bars too high? Every night you'll need to go out and, with as little light as possible, move every bird to the roosting bars and quickly shut the light off, they will not move once it's dark. I have one chicken that sleeps all by herself because the others are buttheads to her. On the nights that are really cold I sneak out there once it's completely dark and with a small flashlight move her to sleep with the rest. As long as I do it quickly there is no problem and she stays.

we have roosting bars but not higher than nest boxes but some of them roost on top of nest boxes as it has a roof on inside a big shed tho,,,I will def try going and moving them thanks x

 

[ChirpyChicks1]

How big is your coop? They'll want to roost as high as possible. I have three different roosting bars at different heights in my coop, they are staggered so they kinda form a step up from one to another. Girls always sleep on the highest one. Good luck!

 

[clairegareth]

How big is your coop? They'll want to roost as high as possible. I have three different roosting bars at different heights in my coop, they are staggered so they kinda form a step up from one to another. Girls always sleep on the highest one. Good luck!

Oh great I see in your pick yes we have like a shed around 6 feet tall will try them higher thanks

 

[Pathfinders]

The roosts in my main coop are set up like a stepladder, with the lowest one being 1 foot off the ground, and subsequent ones a foot apart until the top, which is at 6 feet. They start farthest out at the bottom, and closest to the wall at the top.

The next coop we built, I want to put a hinge on the roosts, as I've seen some people do, so you can just raise them up to clean out under them.

We used 2 x 4s and routed the edges so they were rounded off, then painted them so mites couldn't get into the cracks in the wood, and to make them smoother on the birds feet. Works well for us.