HELP! 13 Chickens in one nesting box???

[meganbrittany06]

Hello There,

I am a new chicken owner. I have 13 chickens and they are about 7 weeks old and are doing just fine outside. During the night,however, instead of going inside of their coop (which is a re-purposed dog house), they all pile into one of their nesting boxes. I have included a picture so that you can see what I mean. They are constantly knocking one another out of the box and cheeping loudly. There are two nesting boxes side by side, yet for some reason they try to pile into one. During the day they are always napping in their coop so I assume they like it, so why aren't they sleeping in there at night? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!






(YES, there are 13 chickens in that one box!)

 

[Vthunstrom]

I a pretty new to chickens myself. I brought home my first chicks last May. They are probably trying to stay warm together.

I have 2 nest boxes and 4 hens and they all use the same box! Pretty funny because to are broody right now and when one of the others wants to lay she squishes in there instead of using the other empty box! Pretty funny!

You could try giving them a roosting pole. My girls all sleep up on the roost.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Your pullets need a roost. Nests are for laying eggs, roosts are for sleeping. Something oval or rectangular (like a board) is better than a round dowel. They want it to be fairly high, at least several feet off the ground.

They'll probably want some privacy around the nest boxes once they start to lay eggs. Think of a nest box as kind of like a bird house with no front.