Hi there! So I've had some problems with my chickens - as was expected, they all came as adults as breeder cast offs from craigslist - they were cheaply priced and that was the only way to get DH to let me get on this awesome chicken lovin' wagon! I'm on my way to hatching my own but for now, need to work with the 6 girls I've got. I built their coop on my own, but I got really sick in the middle and had to rush through the end, missing a few parts. I have had them for a couple weeks now, and I JUST got their roosting pole in last weekend. They had been sleeping in their nesting boxes, and now I can't get them to stop! Is there any way to get them to sleep on their pole instead of their boxes? They all slept on poles at their previous homes, so I know they know how to do it, but I'm not sure how to fix this behavior now that I've screwed it up.
I had to go out every evening before bed for about 1 to 2 weeks and physically take mine out of the nesting box and place them on the roost. At first they would jump off and sometimes sleep under the roost, but they eventually figured it out. All mine went through either wanting to sleep in the box or under the other chickens in the shavings and get pooped on all night!! GL
I had to do this with my chickens as well. They slept on the coop floor until about 12 weeks. When they started moving up to the perch on the nesting boxes I decided it was time for them to go to their roost. In the evening, I would go out and pick each one up and set it on the roost each night. Within a few nights, they were doing it on their own, smart birds! Mine had started using the perch on the nesting boxes to sleep on. So I covered them up with cardboard so they couldn't get up to them. They weren't laying so it wasn't an issue. If yours are laying, you may want to cover them at night until they get into the routine of going to roost on their own. Then uncover in the morning. They'll get the hang of it. Karen
I would block off the nesting boxes at night so it is not an option. Once they start sleeping on the roosts routinely then you can leave the nest open all the time and they will stick to the roosts.
