Chickens sleeping in nest boxes!!

[Bridget399]

So last night I'm shutting up my coop for the night and 6 Red Stars (9 wks old) fly up into the nest boxes... 4 in one 12x12!

I have noticed some poo in them this past week.

If I "block" it off till their older will they still use them for egg laying?

And my 7 wk. old RIRs are very upset that their buddies are up higher then they are.

I suspect that I should have made community nest boxes... I have the feeling that their all going to pile into 2 or 3 and not even use the rest...

 

[Ridgerunner]

If I "block" it off till their older will they still use them for egg laying?

I strongly suggest blocking it off until they are ready for egg-laying. Open the nests back up when they start laying.

And my 7 wk. old RIRs are very upset that their buddies are up higher then they are.

The roosts need to be higher than the nesting boxes. Chickens like to roost as high as they can get. You need enough roosts for all your chickens and the roosts need to be clearly higher than the nesting boxes, say a minimum of 12" higher. The dominant chickens will roost the highest.

I suspect that I should have made community nest boxes... I have the feeling that their all going to pile into 2 or 3 and not even use the rest...

Probably. But if you don't have enough, they will start laying places other than the nesting boxes. It's one of those no-win scenarios.

 

[Bridget399]

So do you think that it would be alright to put the new roosts up that high? I thought that maybe they might get hurt- even if I used a ladder.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know how high your nesting boxes are, but if you want them to roost on roosts instead of in your nesting boxes, you don't have a choice. They may use the ladder to get up to the roosts (and you'd be surprised how high they can jump) but I'd expect them to fly down in the morning.

 

[rainbowgardens]

My problem was solved by raising the roosts.