Nest box pads

[aart]

Unfortunately yes the building of my new coop got delayed but will definitely be happening this year. They all fit in fine still and seem happy as they have so much space in the day but the poop is a real issue, it’s very hard to clean.
I’ve put some photos in below ( the photos are of the coop before I cleaned it today ) The other side is caged off at the moment as 3 baby Silkie chicks sleep in there at night. And the hens don’t really need that side as there is still a lot of room:
I’ve thought about maybe finding away to raise the roosts as there’s quite a high roof so even if they could go up a little bit it might encourage the hens to get out of the box

This might work in your coop to raise the roosts:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ng-in-nest-boxes.1134399/page-2#post-17749535

 

[linguini]

View attachment 2949569Will chickens actually lay on these as they look rather uncomfortable, I’m thinking of ordering some as I’m struggling to keep on top of changing the bedding regularly in the coop. Has anyone got any experience with these?

Never used this before, but I just experienced cleaning poops in the nesting box this morning - forgot to chase the molting chickens off the nesting box last night (yes, two of them judging by evidence). With temperature in the teens last night, a lump of poop
got stuck to a ceramic egg and became a frozen mass.

Don't know about the climate in your area, I'd imaging the mat will be much harder to clean than removing the poops from wood shavings. The poops will be in the nooks and cracks, and imaging when they were frozen onto the mat, you can't even rinse them off in the freezing weather!

 

[FC16]

This might work in your coop to raise the roosts:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ng-in-nest-boxes.1134399/page-2#post-17749535

This is a great idea, I’m going to take a close look on the weekend!!

 

[FC16]

Thankyou to the people who suggested I raised the roosts (@aart @Boise-girls @CanadaEh ) today I have done this and I’ve made a lot more floor space. The roosts are higher than the nesting boxes now. I’ve put some pictures in, I’m hoping it should stop them sleeping in the boxes.

 

[Boise-girls]

Nice! Let us know how it goes. Might take them a couple of days to adjust - seems like chickens have to start their dynamics from "scratch" every time there's a change!

 

[FC16]

Nice! Let us know how it goes. Might take them a couple of days to adjust - seems like chickens have to start their dynamics from "scratch" every time there's a change!

Unfortunately they’re not using them yet, they’re all crammed in the nesting boxes and 1 hen is on the floor area. I’ll see how it goes tomorrow, maybe whilst being in and out the coop all day they’ll figure out the roosts above them.

 

[Boise-girls]

Unfortunately they’re not using them yet, they’re all crammed in the nesting boxes and 1 hen is on the floor area. I’ll see how it goes tomorrow, maybe whilst being in and out the coop all day they’ll figure out the roosts above them.

This might be harder to do in the type of coop you have, but you might try placing some or all of them on the roosts after they go to sleep for 2-3 nights to help them get the idea. In my fairly limited experience, sometimes that will train them to a new spot, sometimes not.

 

[linguini]

Unfortunately they’re not using them yet, they’re all crammed in the nesting boxes and 1 hen is on the floor area. I’ll see how it goes tomorrow, maybe whilst being in and out the coop all day they’ll figure out the roosts above them.

Takes a few days - I installed a new roost recently, took them a few days, now they ALL want to roost on the new roost!

 

[FC16]

This might be harder to do in the type of coop you have, but you might try placing some or all of them on the roosts after they go to sleep for 2-3 nights to help them get the idea. In my fairly limited experience, sometimes that will train them to a new spot, sometimes not.

I did try but because of the size of the coop it’s difficult to even get my hands in, they jumped straight off or wouldn’t even wrap their feet around

 

[NatJ]

I did try but because of the size of the coop it’s difficult to even get my hands in, they jumped straight off or wouldn’t even wrap their feet around

How wide are the roosts? Some coops have really tiny ones, that are uncomfortable for a chicken's feet.

You might try changing one of them to a much wider board (2 or 3 times as wide as it is now), to see if that makes a difference in whether the chickens like to sit on it.