One hen destroying nesting material in all the nesting boxes!

[chickadodo]

Hello. This is my first time with a question for Backyard Chickens. I have 8 Ameracuanas (but I think are really Easter Eggers). They are 8 months old and have been laying throughout the winter. One of our hens (Nervous Nellie) is constantly pulling the nesting material out of ALL the nesting boxes. I have tried pine shavings, straw and nesting pads. She kicks everything out! I have about a 2 inch lip on each box. I have 4 boxes. She has been doing this for about a month now. There are several of the other hens that she will run out of the box if they happen to be in it. She doesn't seem to want to stay in any of the boxes so I don't think that she is broody. Is she just a B ..ch? I hate to get rid of her, but I am concerned that she may disrupt egg laying for the other girls. She seems to just be nervous (thus her name) and not able to settle down. Does anyone have any suggestions what might be wrong with her?

 

[nuthatched]

Add a higher lip (chickens can fit into small areas easily) or more privacy.

 

[NatJ]

One of our hens (Nervous Nellie) is constantly pulling the nesting material out of ALL the nesting boxes. I have tried pine shavings, straw and nesting pads. She kicks everything out! I have about a 2 inch lip on each box.

Do the chickens have plenty of other areas to scratch around and forage? I know that can be hard in the winter, but maybe a pile of dirt to scratch through would help distract her? Or a compost pile, or anything else where she can dig around and find little bits of things to eat. Even a bale of straw to pull apart.

The more time she spends scratching somewhere else, the less time she has to mess with the nestboxes.

(I'm just guessing here. I don't actually know whether it would help or not.)

 

[Byrd gal]

I have a little terror that loves to tear up everything she can get her nails in.I put treats in a plastic bottle with a hole in it and switch it up with hanging treats. I don't know if there is such thing as a ADHD chicken but my cracker fits the bill. She loves her mirror and bell too. I left two bales in the run til after work once Cracker made one heck of a mess she looked like the Tasmanian Devil! Maybe she is just bored .

 

[chickadodo]

Thanks everyone for your input. The girls have a good sized run (about 12X20), dirt to scratch in, and have destroyed a bale of straw over the winter! Pretty good set up. Everyone but the my nervous gal seems content. Was thinking the same thing about the ADHD. Maybe need some chicken Ritalen!! I was hoping that the nesting pads would slow her down, but she can have them out of the box in no time - paper and all!! I"ll try raising the lip on a couple of the boxes and see if that does anything. She will play with treats for awhile then go right back into the coop and start her routine again. Thinking that she is really just nuts!

 

[Acre4Me]

We've had this happen too. Our girls seem to prefer chopped straw the most for the nesting boxes. They seem to leave that in the nest boxes, except for the bottom two that do not have a lip on them. They seemed to really hate the excelsior that is used in many nesting pads. I even bought a bulk box so that it was not attached to the paper backing, and they still hated it. They hated plain shavings and would scratch through regular straw a ton - so we keep the regular long straw for putting in the run on occasion. So, we have moved to using this chopped straw, which we buy at TSC:

 

[Vacman]

It would appear that there is not one solution to this problem. I had never heard of nesting pads, but my hens were stripping everything I tried out of the nesting boxes. I bought nesting pads which had herbs mixed in them on Amazon and this seems to have stopped that behavior, but others had not had success with this. I guess you just have to try all the various suggestions and find out what works for you. BTW, this herb-infused nesting pads really smell great when I open the nesting box lid to remove the eggs. I installed them in late fall and they still look and smell great.

 

[aart]

I had a bird like that, she was one of my best and calmest layers.
Then I segregated a few birds for a couple days, why is too long of a story,
but when I put them back in the flock something tripped in this one girls brain and she started tearing up all the nests and harassing the other layers.
I finally had to get rid of her, she was delicious.

 

[Byrd gal]

I had a bird like that, she was one of my best and calmest layers.
Then I segregated a few birds for a couple days, why is too long of a story,
but when I put them back in the flock something tripped in this one girls brain and she started tearing up all the nests and harassing the other layers.
I finally had to get rid of her, she was delicious.

 

[Byrd gal]

Oh my!