nesting box question(s)

[samiam44]

Good morning,


I got these coop plans online from Purina and it wasn't clear to me on how part of the nesting box should be. I built it and the chickens like to sleep in the boxes and they kickout all the straw. When they get old enough to lay- does that behavior change and they build a nest with the straw or maybe I need to put some inner wall and inch or 2 high to help retain straw. Right now they are like cubby holes.



Michael

 

[HEChicken]

Its not a good idea to let them sleep in the nest boxes because they will poop in them and make a mess. Where are the roosts and are they higher than the nest boxes? Usually their preference is to roost as high as they can get, so if the roosts are higher, they will more likely choose those to sleep on. Until they are laying age, I'd recommend blocking off access to the nest boxes. What I did was to tack some feed sacks on the front of the nest boxes so the young birds who wanted to sleep there were unable to. Since I also have layers, in the morning I would fold the sacks up and over the top of the boxes so the layers could get in and lay their eggs. It only took 2-3 days to "train" the young birds to sleeping on the roost and I no longer need to keep the nest boxes blocked off.

 

[Nicole01]

Mine will sometimes sneak to sleep in the nest. I take them out and set them on the roost. I never blocked my nest boxes. When they were younger, they slept on the floor in the corner on the other side of the nest box. We ended up making 14" shelves since for the life of me, I could not get my hens to roost on bars or 2x4,s!

It worked out great! They should not sleep in the boxes at a young age. I never had any real issue. I used fake eggs inside the nest around 16 weeks of age and they all laid right away.