I have 4 chickens that insist on emptying the nesting boxes of pine shavings down to the bare wood. 2 Americaunas, 1 Austrolorp and 1 Buff Orpington. 10 weeks old and have been out in coop for 5 weeks now. Any thoughts? THX, John
Since they're not really laying yet, why not block the nest boxes off for a while? They're probably just playing in the shavings, and after a while they'll lose interest if you give them other things to do (other places to scratch, etc). BTW
They won't be laying for like 10 more weeks or so, they really are probably just playing, they don't need nesting boxes yet, do they have a roost? they should be starting to roost soon, get them off the ground, onto a roost. just my opinion.
I think they may be playing as well, cause a good bit of shavings end up in the run. They have two poles that run the length of the coop, about two inches off the bedding that I see them use. I have considered adding one more a bit higher up to see if they like that as well, just haven't got around to it yet. I have also seen them huddled together at night when I go out to shut the coop door for the night. One other thing I wondered was best location for food and water. Right now I have both hanging in run. They have no trouble finding them.
Mine would remove hay from their boxes, I started throwing down scratch & they stopped, I was going with bored! Wanted to add only a hand full of scratch I only have 3 hens & 1 roo.
they arent using them for the right reason!...i would close them up or they wont know that is where they should lay an egg.... wait till they are going to start to lay before you open the boxes up again/.......
