New at this - when to uncover nest boxes

[Cathrine]

Hi everyone, new chicken owner here.

My girls were hatched on August 14, so they are about 5 months old. I was told to cover the nest boxes until they need them so they don't learn to play and hang out in them.

Does anyone know when I should uncover them? Its seems they are getting close to egg laying age, but I was told they will start laying later because of the short winter days.

Should I take the cardboard off now? Wait a few weeks?

BTW - 2 of the hens insist on roosting on the small bar in front of the nest box that was intended to help them get to the second nest level. They do have 2 long expanses of wider, higher roosting bar that most of the other chickens use (except for the one crazy Polish that insists on sleeping on the top of the indoor waterer). Is this going to be a problem for egg laying? Not sure how to discourage it, maybe raise the other roosting bars even higher?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[chickencheeper]

It’s best to uncover the nest boxes and place fake ceramic eggs inside at around 19-20 weeks

 

[MrsMistyReal]

Good morning welcome aboard to BYC family gr8, loads of fun, tons of information, enjoy shake your tail feathers

 

[aart]

Welcome to BYC!

I'd uncover nests now..add fake eggs, will give you and them time to 'train to roost' before eggs come.

Posting pics of your nests and roosts would help us help you figure out how to proceed. Dimensions of coop, in feet by feet, and number of birds is needed also.

 

[Cathrine]

Hi! Thanks for the offer to help.

I have 13 birds. We converted an unused playhouse for the coop. The indoor chicken area is 8'x7' = 56 ft2 (we reserved some space for storage). The run is 8' x 20' = 160 ft2. I was told to plan 4 ft2 inside and 10 ft2 outside per bird, and made it slightly larger than that. Hopefully its big enough.

I have 4 nest boxes stacked 2 on 2. They are covered now, but I ordered ceramic eggs and nest pads so I can open them up. We have 2 roost bars inside, each 7 feet long for a total of 14 feet. Is that enough?

Here are a few pics:

 

[aart]

Roosts should be enough.
Nest perch may be too far away to assist into upper nests, time will tell.

You might have to cover that nest perch if they are in the habit if using it.
I rigged a hinged cover, easy to drop an hour before roost time, flip it back up when locking up after dark.

 

[Cathrine]

Thanks Aart - that looks like a pretty easy solution!