Hen sleeps in the nest box at night

[Anna Taylor]

I have a huge sex link hen that sleeps in the nesting box every night. Is this normal?

 

[lovemy6hens]

They shouldn't be sleeping in the nest. Have there been changes recently or has she always slept there? Is there enough room on the roost?

 

[Anna Taylor]

She is new to our flock. About a week and half. Yes There is plenty of room on the roost.

 

[lovemy6hens]

In that case, it may be the move to a new home. The most common suggestion I've read is to move her to the roost at night. Hopefully that will work. For ours, two wanted to sleep in the nests and it took a few weeks. I'd wake everyone up going in after dark, so I'd stand there until everyone fell asleep and them move them. However, I'd have to stand there and move them repeatedly because they kept going back. Part of the problem then was our roost at 36". It was just high enough to make it difficult for me to pick them up comfortably. The roost in our new coop is only at 20" and it isn't as disruptive to move them. They've been in their new coop for a month and I'm still moving them each night. I thought 9' was enough room for 11 hens, but we have a roost hog who happens to be the last one to fall asleep. We will be making a new roost this weekend.
EDIT: Our roost hog keeps about of 3' to herself on one side each night.