Egg issues

[aart]

We go in there when we lock up and push her out but she just returns after we've left.

Did you actually put her on the roost... after full dark so she can't see to get back to nest??
Did you get all your birds at the same time?
She may be low in the pecking order.

Looking forward to seeing your set up.

If I tilt the floor of my current nesting boxes would that encourage her to sleep somewhere else?

It would have to be tilted at such a sharp angle(more than 45°) not a good idea for a nest.

 

[ozzy chooks]

When I got my first 3 pullets they all went to sleep roosting on the edges of the nest boxes.
I manually picked them up an put them on the roosting bar every single night - after dark to avoid them going back in the nesting boxes.
One pullet learnt to roost on the bar after 3 days. Anothe one after 3 weeks and with the last one it took three months.
So I'd suggest keep putting her on the bar every night until she learns. And be patient cos it could take a couple of days or much much longer.

Good luck!

 

[rehsanipoor]

They were all purchased at the same time. I will try to start to put them onto the roosts after full dark we'll see if we make progress!

 

[snow5164]

And nesting boxes in my opinion should be just that “ a box” why all these birds are nesting on the sides is because they can and pooping in them is just natural.

Close off the tops to stop this behaviour.

I actually have my 2x4 roost attached to my nesting boxes on top with a poop board full of sand .... it’s one unit and works very nicely

 

[rehsanipoor]

So while I was taking the pictures I noticed a few behaviors I wanted to ask about. One or two of the girls will sit in the nesting boxes for long periods (without laying and I removed the dummy egg) and not allow others to enter. It's obvious the others want to go in but the sitters are aggressive. If one does get in than the aggressors peck and bully them out.

Eventually I put one of the girls, "Milly" (who is the one doesn't roost) in the coop alone so she could lay her egg which she did quite quickly. How should I handle this in the future? There are enough boxes, they just don't want to share (hmmmm.. sounds like my kids).

So now I'm beginning to wonder if Milly is in fact being bullied and that is why she often doesn't roost.

I was reading about bullying and I think after reading about likely causes that our coop itself is too small. They have a large run to use during the day and also get free range time but the where they sleep is probably closer quarters than they want. I'll post pictures below to get opinions.

Thanks in advance.

 

[snow5164]

Being overcrowded can cause a whole pile of problems... bullying is just one.

Good observations, I sit in my coops and run and observe , I just make sure no non chicken people see me I might get taken to the funny farm

 

[rehsanipoor]

This is shows the "inner" and "outer" run where they spend much of their day. They also get time to free range in the entire yard which isn't pictured.

You can see the roof of the coop where it sits in the "inner run" here.

This is the coop where they get locked up at night. You can see one of the low roosts near the chicken.

You can see one of the low roosts (there is another that wasn't in when I took the picture) as well as two roosts up above. To the left are the nesting boxes, and there is Ruby (the Plymouth Rock) getting ready to peck Milly because she doesn't want her in there!

The nesting boxes. That little ledge you see above the astro turf is where a few of them roost and Milly the one who I suspect is being picked on sleeps right where she is in this picture. You can see that Ruby has now bullied Milly into moving to a different box where she is will continue to bully her out of the coop altogether.

Last is an image of Milly who is demonstrating that she is perfectly able to roost when she wants (or is allowed) to!

Hopefully this gives you a full picture of there spaces. Do you think I need to make the coop bigger and purchase/make nesting boxes that sit independently of the coop? How many?

 

[rosemarythyme]

The coop space is too tight and those nest boxes are very open, which is probably making it easier for the bully to just peck and annoy her victim. You have 6 birds? You'd want a minimum of 24 sq ft of floor space (not counting nest boxes) and 6 ft of roost. Also those upper roosts make the lower roost pointless (no bird would want to sit directly under another and get pooped on) and the upper roosts are far too close together... ideally you'd want about 18" between roost bars. So there simply isn't room for all the birds and that's why some are being forced onto the floor or nest boxes.

This might not be a perfect fix but it might help ease the tensions in the coop for now: turn the entire coop/run prefab into the coop. Take out the interior walls/floor and run a roost bar lengthwise across the unit. In this case I would also remove the nest boxes and install new ones close to floor level, maybe by removing some of the wire mesh and adding it externally, sorta like this:

 

[rehsanipoor]

Okay. That sounds "do-able" I could close off the open wire walls with plywood, take down the interior walls, and then run new roosts along the length of the "new" coop.

Do the nesting boxes need to be part of the coop or can it be free standing in the run? We let them out around 7:30, which is before they lay.

 

[rehsanipoor]

How many nesting boxes would be appropriate?