How to stop my chick from making a mess

[Rockergirl]

One of my chickens has gotten into this bad habit of tearing up and kicking out all of the nest box beddings from all 3 of the boxes. I'm wasting a lot of money replacing the bedding and it's also making the nest box uncomfortable for the other ladies. Any tricks on how to get her to stop? She's always been picky about making the nest box bedding basically a deep "bowl" shape but now she has gotten obsessive compulsive about it, to the point she kicks it all out as quickly as I put it in.

 

[sourland]

Increase the lip on the nest box.

 

[nuthatched]

How big is the boxes? What's the bedding?

 

[tlcmurphy]

Increase the lip on the nest box.

This

 

[HappyHourHomestead]

I had the same problem with my hen Flint. Put a small section of a 2x4 at the opening of the nest box - she will not be able to kick the bedding out of the nest box. Also if you are using pine shavings as bedding, switch to straw my hen didn't feel the need to kick that around as much.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

What breed is she? What are the dimensions of the nest box, length x width x height in inches.

 

[Rockergirl]

How big is the boxes? What's the bedding?

I use these nest pads (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S1QCCMZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1) - the pads fit the box perfectly 13x13. I can't remember why I started using these nest pads vs straw or hemp (I use hemp in the run). I just remember I went through testing a lot of different things and this was the one they like the best and worked the best, been using them for several years now. My other chicks will just lay on the pad without scratching around but this one check (Freckles) digs like crazy.

 

[Rockergirl]

What breed is she? What are the dimensions of the nest box, length x width x height in inches.

easter egger. I'm not sure of the height but the bottom dimensions is 13x13. It's pretty high...my husband built them based on standard pre-made boxes and built them a little higher than those

 

[StinkyAcres]

I personally think those nest pad things are a big waste of money. If you don't want to risk introducing bugs to the nesting boxes with hay or straw maybe try shredded paper. Anyway, it sounds like the boxes may need a larger lip on them and she wants fluffier nesting material.

 

[Rockergirl]

I personally think those nest pad things are a big waste of money. If you don't want to risk introducing bugs to the nesting boxes with hay or straw maybe try shredded paper. Anyway, it sounds like the boxes may need a larger lip on them and she wants fluffier nesting material.

they are very expensive, I agree! It's just between all the options what saved my sanity. One thing it has really helped with, is protecting the wooden box from the broken egg shells, that she used to always have (she's always been sort of the "special" one). The padding somewhat blocked the wood from getting saturated. I still periodically have the broken egg problem from one of my other chicks that has stopped producing so much. I have tried a plastic washable pad under different materials to help with the egg mess problem but I got tired of always having to wash the plastic pad. Anyway - after everything I've tried.....the nest pad was the winner. Yes, she does seem to want a fluffier nest, she can get that pad seriously fluffed (more than straw, etc)but she just keeps going and going and going until she rips a hole in the pad and now pushes it out of the box...I really don't know of a fluffier option....