Nesting Box Question

[BDutch]

Instead of blocking off the nests I go out at dark and move them where I want them to sleep if they are sleeping where I don't want them to sleep.

i trained a few of my pillets this way.

and

I do block the prefered nestboxes if I have a broody.
I have 2 nestboxes in a small prefab coop were most of my broodies prefer to brood (and sleep) in. If I want to brake their broodiness, I usually toss the broody out and close the door of the prefab shortly before/around sunset. If they won’t stop, i close the prefab 24/7 for a few days. There is another nestbox in the run where they can lay their eggs. But if I close the coop 24/7 they often lay under the roost too. +

 

[BonnieBlue]

I know I am late to this party, but I had that problem when I moved the older girls into their new coop. It was much bigger than the old one and the openness spooked them.

I had a spare 1x12 from coop construction and cut it into two pieces so it was easier to handle, and would just lean those pieces against the openings to the nesting boxes each night and remove them first thing in the morning. Violet had to be dragged out of the nesting box kicking every evening, but after a couple of weeks, she quit trying. Of course, after that, she started sleeping in a corner of the poop board and was getting a messy butt every night from not being on the roost. I ended up putting blackout film in the two windows of that corner of the coop to make it feel more closed in, and she started sleeping on the roost.

Sometimes they are a test of wills, but worth the extra effort.