My Solution For Nest Box Roosting....Working so Far!

[fireguy56]

Hii, So after doing all my research and months of building our dream coop we started having a problem others on BYC were experiencing. Girls wanting to roost on the edge of nest boxes and subsequent pooping in the nest box bedding material. We would go out every night and physically put them on one of the many roosts we gave them......still a handful would end up on the edge of boxes. I thought of a variety of things I could do to prevent it and finally decided to use the idea of a fellow poster here whom had made nest boxes from plastic buckets with a thin piece of plywood cut in a Vee on the front to keep in bedding. i had considered a thin wire across fron, thin piece of metal, etc...Anything that they would not be comfortable roosting on. Had plenty of 1/4 " luan in work shop so just cut a few pieces the width of my two boxes, cut a vee large enough for our biggest , fat assed bird to still be able to enter and attached them with screws. The steep angle and thin material is not condusive to being comfortable for roosting. So, I think (knock on wood) the problem is solved. Here are two photos of before the upgrade and after. Been 4 days and no one roosing on boxes and more importantly, no poop in boxes. Thanks for checking this out and hope it helps someone else who has had same problem.
Erik

Before photo. Might add this is an older pic and have since added second roost and poop trays.

After photo. Can see another set of roost and poop trays now in place. total of 24' of roost space.

Here is a shot of overall picture of some of the girls coming in for the night using roosts and ladder/ ramps.

 

[TigerLilly]

That looks like a great idea--Congrats on your ingeniousness!

 

[stubbornhill]

That does look like a great idea! Nice job in solving a frustrating problem.

 

[darkmatter]

My solution to prevent nest box roosting is to have panels that I can fold up to close off the boxes when I want too. Usually when I have Juveniles afraid to join the big ones on the ladder roost, they will start roosting in the nest boxes. By kicking them out of the boxes when I close them up at night, it only takes a week or so and they learn where to roost with the adults on the ladder roost.

Here is a pic I used in another thread that you can see the boards I have hinged for folding them up over the nest openings.

 

[fireguy56]

Darkmatter, Believe me I thought of some way of closing them off, then decided that was not the way to go. My girls have free runof the hen house and if I closed off the boxes, and they were ready to lay....then I'd have another problem with them laying on the floor. That didn't seem the way to go, hence i just came up with an idea to discourage the few that were roosting on them(and pooping in them)
Erik

 

[surgerynut]

My problem is not that they want to roost on the edge of the nesting box, some of my chickens just want to sleep in the nest. I started blocking them at night and removing the block in the morning. Now, instead of them nesting in the box, they lay on the ground under the roosts...Gross! I try to put them on the roosts, but they don't stay there. Any suggestions?

 

[fireguy56]

surgerynut, I guess, as others have advised on BYC.......just keep picking them up and putting them back on a roost....hopefully they will get the message. They can be stubborn however.....good luck.
Erik

 

[darkmatter]

Quote:
I only need to close the nest boxes at night for a week or two. The rest of the year they remain open 24/7, it's only when I have Juveniles transitioning from floor to roost that I occasionally have nest box roosting problems. Some times the Juveniles go straight to the ladder roost and sometimes a batch will try out the boxes. My ladder roost starts lower then the nest boxes and ends up higher, so the chickens wanting the high spot choose the ladder roost and then there is enough room for pecking order jostling.

Here's a pic from another of my posts that shows the ladder roost. (It's hinged for lift up when I want to clean out the deep litter compost)