Is it so terrible that my girls like to sleep in their nestboxes?

[caralouise1974]

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Aw bless, how sweet!

I reckon that's how it all started with my two - the BO is simply too big and awkward to be bothered with getting onto the perches, and the bluebelle simply copied her!

I'm going to leave them both well alone - if we get a few slightly poopy eggs, so what? They're still edible!

 

[da-cajun-angla]

read my 2nd to last post and see what what i did to stop this. i had one that never did it in her 3-4yrs, and all of the sudden started sleeping/pooing/and crushing the eggs. for lack of a better term, she went coo-coo. heritage birds dont do this as much due to the instinct to roost in order to get away from predators. birds lik pr and others, have lost the instinct and/or were not taught by their mothers<---i heard the last one recently about not being taught and im a little skeptical on that one. im akin to the instinct to roost.
shaun

 

[cointoss]

Mine started doing this a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure if it's because I unplugged their light around that time (they had a red 25-watt bulb every night this winter for about 6 hours after dusk to help keep their water from freezing) and they can't find their perch, or if they are wanting to brood. I guess I should retrain them, too.

 

[cointoss]

Never mind. I just put on my headlamp and trudged out in the rain only to find that they ARE roosting on their perch again. Do chickens have ESP?

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[dharveymi]

I have two Rhode Island Reds who free roam the backyard. Just in the last few months, they have stopped going into their coop to perch and sleep. They prefer to perch on the gate of the goat pen. I think they feel safer at that height.?. One of them scratched a big enough hole under the fence to get in and out of the goat pen when she wants, and has taken to laying her eggs inside one of the doghouses in there instead of going into the coop to lay. I guess whatever makes the girls happy is all right with me. The goats don't seem to care; they carefully step around the egg until it gets picked up. Just a little curious on my part, though.

 

[cmom]

I had some pullets and some of my hens when they were pullets that wanted to sleep in the nest boxes. I hated cleaning out the nest boxes evey morings and the poopy eggs. In the evenings I would put milk crates in the nest boxes and take them out in the mornings. I did this for a few days. They got the message.

 

[cmom]

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I would plug up the hole and encourage her to use the nest boxes.