No Eggs and Nest Box Questons

jywel417

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Several weeks ago I was given a few polish hens and to my surprise got an egg a day for the first 6 days I had them. I recently had an outbreak of cocci in my pen and lost 8 chickens. The polish had stopped laying a bit before that and still haven't laid again. I am not so concerned about this since I am still treating the water with medication and figure they may still be a bit under the weather.

My main question is how to keep the chickens from roosting on the edges of the nest boxes at night. My nest boxes in my one coop are constantly filled with poop because several of my chickens have decided it is fun to roost on the edges of the nest boxes at night. Is there any solution to this so I do not constantly have nest boxes full of poop?

Thanks again guys !
 
Most will tell you to have your roosts up high and the nest boxes low since the birds like to be as high as they can.

If your roosts are up higher, maybe they/it aren't as comfy to roost on? Or they like the location of the nest boxes better for the view, or feel more protected, etc.

Good luck and hope everyone recovers.
 
As Sweet cheeks said, the roosts need to be clearly higher than the nesting boxes. That's clearly higher to the chickens, not just you. 12" is usually enough. Not everybody has room or the set-up to do this.

One possible solution is to cover the nesting boxes. The way I read this you have open nesting boxes and they are roosting on the sides, not just roosting on the opening for them to enter. You can either put a sloping cover on them where the chickens cannot stay there or put a flat cover so they can roost up there. Either way, I'd put a bit of overhang so the poop does not go into the nesting boxes. If it is flat, you may need to clean it every day or two. This stuff is great for a compost heap and cleaning it regularly will extend the life of your litter since a lot of poop will not be going into it.

If your roosts are clearly higher than the nesting boxes, you can go into the coop every night and move the chickens from the nesting boxes to the roosts. Do this after they have settled in for the night and do it with as little light and disturbance as possible. After a few nights, they should get the message. They are creatures of habit. You just have to change their habits.

If you cannot get your roosts higher than the nesting boxes, I don't have a lot of advice for you.
 
Covering the nest boxes in this one coop may be the way to go. I bought it and it came with a nice set up but the nest boxes are higher than the roosts, the dividers between boxes provide perfect roosting areas for the kids, so they think anyways lol I am still finishing my second cop so I can make sure I have the nest boxes lower than the roosts in it!
 

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