Nest now or later?

[Larry in Hawaii]

We have always had adult hens, but our 7 week old girls were moved to their new home right next to the adults...for awhile at least. I have heard it's best to keep the nest area's covered so they don;t get used to sleeping in them. Now if this is true, do you wait until they lay their first egg in the coop or the run and then uncover them? Just seems it would be hard to teach them to use the nest.

I looked in on them tonight way after dark and all were either laying end to end right in the door way to the run or under the ladder. I put them one by one into the coop. Not sure why they did that but all are safe.

I only saw one chick on a roost today...just something they learn on their own I would guess

 

[N F C]

Hi,

I would leave the nesting boxes covered until they girls are close to laying age and then open them up. As for them using the roost, it seems to me that once one bird starts doing something, the rest soon follow.

Hope that helps.

 

[Ridgerunner]

There is a difference in roosting and perching. Roosting is when they sleep on the roosts at night. Perching is when they play by perching on something up high during the day. Baby chicks will often perch at just a couple of days old. I’ve seen a broody hen take chicks to the roosts for the night at two weeks but most of my brooder-raised chicks don’t start to roost on their own until they are about 10 to 12 weeks old. Of course they are not consistent. I’ve seen some start roosting at night on their own at five weeks and some take months longer. I just let mine learn on their own though you can usually speed up the process by placing them (or some of them) on the roosts after it is too dark for them to come back off. Like NFC said, once one starts the rest normally follow fairly soon.

When I move my brooder-raised chicks from the brooder to the elevated grow-out coop, I leave them locked in the coop section for a week or so before I let them into their run so they know where home is. After I let them into their own run portion at about six weeks practically all of them go to bed in a group under the door back into their coop. Until they are roosting they seem to have an instinct to sleep in a group in a “safe-to-them” place. I think the coop being elevated makes a difference.

So I do what you are doing. After it is dark enough that it is easy to catch them, I place them in the coop. Some chicks catch on after one time though my current brood took several weeks for all of them to catch on. What normally happens is that some catch on fairly quickly but some continue to sleep outside. Usually within a week all mine have figured it out, usually. Certainly not this time. My broods are normally in the range of 15 to 20 chicks.

One of the funniest things I’ve seen was a couple of years ago. I had a brood of 16 that all had to be put in the coop the first night. The next night I happened to be down there doing something else just about dark. The chicks had piled up under the door but when they saw me coming they all went inside on their own. I never had that problem with that brood again. I’ve tried that with other broods since but no, that did not work again. It’s not that easy.

Once they start roosting at night, chickens normally like to sleep on the highest point available. That’s why your roosts need to be higher than anything you don’t want them roosting on or in, like the nests. They poop a lot at night and you really don’t want that on your eggs. When they transition from the floor to the roosts they might spend a night or two in the nests if the nests re elevated before they move on. They can occasionally get stuck in the nests and not move on but there is normally a reason for that I’ll get to. If your nests are pretty low, they might consider them a safe place to sleep “on the floor” before they transition to the roosts. Once they do start sleeping on the roosts, they are in the habit of sleeping there. They are unlikely to go back to a nest to sleep.

Occasionally when a pullet first starts to lay she does not have total control of the process. She may drop her first egg wherever she happens to be, from the roosts or just walking around the coop or run. Most have control from the start. When they are getting ready to lay they often select a nest to lay in, either your nests or some other spot. Where they lay that first controlled egg is where they will almost certainly want to lay the rest of their eggs. I want my nests open when they lay that first controlled egg. A fake egg like a golf ball, ceramic or wooden egg, or a plastic “Easter” egg can work to show them where a good place to lay might be. I recommend that. Once you get older hens laying, the pullets normally lay where the older hens show them but just starting out a little help is good.

My chickens are most brutal to each other on the roosts. Where they sleep is a pecking order thing. The ones higher in the pecking order are going to sleep in the preferred places but sometimes the lower ranked chickens just have to try to get those good spots. The higher ranked chickens will enforce their pecking order rights by pecking. I’ve also seen a fairly low ranked adult hen go out of her way to peck younger immature birds that rank lower than her. I guess she is trying to keep them in their place as long as she can. This is when chicks transitioning from the floor to the roosts may get stuck in the nests or even leave the roosts if they are used to sleeping up there and go back to the nests. The roosts are too brutal. I’ve seen this a lot when I integrate younger chicks with my adult flock, either brooder-raised or broody-raised after she weans them.

How do you counter this? Have plenty of roost space. Give the ones being picked on a safe place to go that is not your nests. I saw this so much in my flock I put up a separate roost a little lower than the main roost and horizontally separated. It’s worked well at keeping them out of the nests. Since I have adult hens laying eggs I can’t block off the nests unless I make sure I’m out there before they lay any eggs and some lay pretty early.

Since all yours are the same age it’s not that likely you’ll have some leave the roosts or get stuck in a nest, but it is still possible. Just provide plenty of room on the roosts so the weak can avoid the strong.

I’ve had pullets lay their first egg at 16 weeks but that is fairly rare. Eighteen to twenty-one weeks is more normal for the first pullet to lay her first egg. Until then you can block off the nests. But I want to know if I have a problem with them sleeping and pooping in the nests before I start getting poopy eggs so I can fix that problem if it exists. Also, the pullets will often enter the nests a week or so before they start when looking for a good place to lay. They scratch a lot when they do this. If they scratch the bedding out then you know you need to do something about that. The normal fix for that is to raise the lip a couple of inches.

With my older hens on the flock I have to keep my nests open. But with a first flock of all pullets I’d still want to know if I have a problem so I can fix it before the eggs start coming.

Good luck! You are going to enjoy this adventure.

 

[azygous]

It's not hard to teach even young chicks to go into the coop on their own and even roost. Here's how I do it:

"Sticking them in the coop" isn't really teaching them much, and it's very stressful for all concerned because it usually involves chasing the chicks and catching them.

The best way to teach chicks to go into the coop at night is to wait until you see them begin to mill around near the coop, making "bedtime noises" some time around dusk when you would be using headlights on your car to drive. These are very different from their busy little daytime chirps. They're much softer and more like cricket chirps. Typically they're bunching together.

So, you know they're in the mood to go in. When teaching an animal to do something new, you capitalize on what they want to do naturally. Going to roost is a very powerful urge, so all you need to do is get into the coop yourself and call to the chicks. It also helps to have a little light in there for the first few times so they aren't going into a dark place from a much lighter environment outside.

If you haven't taught your chicks to come to you when your call them, it's time to teach them. When feeding them their favorite treat just use the same verbal cue each time, and it takes no time at all for them to associate the verbal cue with getting a treat.

So, if they won't come into the coop when you call them, use the favorite treat to get them to come in. You don't want them to associate going into the coop with stress as they been experiencing by being grabbed up and stuffed in. You want to make it a pleasant experience or else it will take forever to get them to go in on their own.

Doing it this way, it will take two nights, tops, and they will go in on their own.

As for teaching them to roost, it requires repetition and a little patience. I gently place them on the perch close together, for comfort and reassurance, close to one end, preferably against a wall. They'll keep hopping off. Just keep replacing them until they stay. Give it two minutes and then give up if they haven't taken to it by then. But try again each night until they stick and sleep all night on the perch. It may take up to a week, but usually far less, for them to hop up on the perch on their own.

Regarding covering the nest boxes, yes, you need to cover them to prevent the chicks from getting into the habit of sleeping in them. You can probably uncover them when you see they've learned to roost on their own. Uncovering the nests after they are around four months is crucial because they need to engage in "playing house" prior to laying. Nest exploration, even if they make a big mess, is an important step toward laying.