Layers sleeping in nextbox

[Tofu the chicken]

So my chickens are all laying hens and they were all trained not to sleep in the nest box, but now lately out of no where they are sleeping in nest boxes and well pooping in them too, there is one broody hen but the rest aren't broody so they have no reason to sleep there, I think this has been going on maybe 2 weeks, any suggestions? I would block off the nest boxes but they lay in there and even just blocking them again night they typically lay some eggs before I would wake up and be able to unblock it, thanks for any help you can offer

 

[sourland]

Are your roosts higher than the nest boxes ? Chickens generally like to roost at the highest point possible.

 

[sealer39]

My pullets did that also about three weeks ago. They had been using the roost. I believe what happened ‘in my case’ is the biting gnats had just appeared and the pullets were trying to escape them. I treated the coop/run with permitherin and blocked off the nest boxes and things are back to normal.

When you have sudden changes in behavior from your chickens, look for something that could be wrong with their environment.

Or, It could be that they just saw your broody doing it and thought that was a cool idea.

 

[Tofu the chicken]

Are your roosts higher than the nest boxes ? Chickens generally like to roost at the highest point possible.

No, but it's one of those cheaply made store bought coops (actually really high quality for a store bought one and it's not plywood but that's besides the point) but it's not really an easy option to add higher roosts however currently in the process of building a real coop, that will indeed have high roosts so maybe I'll just deal with them in the nest box until they are in the new coop

 

[rosemarythyme]

If you need to block the nests, block just a little before dusk, then unblock once it's dark. That way they can still lay in the early AM without any issue.

 

[Tofu the chicken]

If you need to block the nests, block just a little before dusk, then unblock once it's dark. That way they can still lay in the early AM without any issue.

That's a good idea I'll try