Pooh in the Nest

[whitutis]

Silly chickens--why would you pooh where you lay your babies?

Any known way of breaking this habit? Reasons that would start such a thing? We've had our 3 BO for a year and a half now and someone has just started fowling the nesting box.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[peeppeeppeep]

I think they all do it. I clean out the nesting boxes every morning. I keep an old garden trowel in the henhouse and scoop the poop. Then add fresh pine shavings as needed.

 

[2468Chickensrgr8]

Sometimes I have to go in each night and place them on the roost until they understand this is where they sleep at night...I have a roost thats not that high up just for "I can't jump that high" chickens ....

 

[cmom]

My birds were sleeping in the nest boxes. I put milk crates in the nest boxes in the evenings and took them out in the mornings for a week. It seems to have worked. I did it with my hens and with my pullets. Also I put a golf ball in each nest box. I also made sure the roosts are higher than the nest boxes. The birds tend to go to the highest spot to roost. My original roosts were at the same height as the nest boxes. I have raised it to just above the boxes. It's no fun when they get used to sleeping in the nest boxes and then you reach in and get poopy eggs. This happened to me in the beginning. I thought it was cute. I finally got tired of cleaning the poopy eggs and the poop out of the nest boxes..