Poop in nesting boxes

[feathersnuggles]

Can't see any modification possible to make their sleeping roost higher than the nestboxes, and can't make a new roost above the nestboxes? Then, looks like you'll need to regularly clean the nests.

 

[Yardbirds286]

My roost are higher than my nest boxes and one of my BR's still insists on sleeping in a nest box.

 

[feathersnuggles]

Quote:
I find that my largest heaviest hen needs a ramp (or an intermediate roost) so that she can get up to the higher communal sleep roost. Otherwise, she would stay below -- and at that point she would prefer staying in the nestbox because its sides provide some of the shelter & warmth effect that roostmates would.

 

[Trishkabob]

We had to get friends for our girl who was solo after we lost her sisters in November.
Our 3 newest ones are young-4 months- and have been sleeping/hanging out in the nest boxes since no one is laying at the moment. This seems like a bad habit for things like poop on the eggs? When they start laying again in the spring how should I keep them from using it for non laying purposes?
(The only one who has laid, laid faithfully in the nestbox and I want her to go back to it in the spring. Will she "train" the newest three?)
Our roosts are higher than the boxes and they roost up there too.

 

[feathersnuggles]

You really shouldn't block nestboxes when they are laying. Otherwise you'll inadvertently train them to lay elsewhere, which could be a problem. If no one is laying (and no one in the flock currently has a bright red comb and/or is squatting) you can temporarily block the nests.

Young pullets will spend more time in the nestboxes, when they are approaching point-of-lay, in other words, they are getting close to beginning to lay. You can put fake eggs (I use golfballs) into the nests and leave them there, which will help alert them to the fact they should lay their own eggs there, when the time comes.

The real big poopy nest problems happen when birds spend the night in the nestboxes, since they poop a huge amount during the night. During the day, they are becoming familiar with the nest, as their laying time approaches. I like to leave the nestboxes open for young pullets to investigate, but make the sleeping roost easily accessible, draft-free...and comfortable for perching throughout the long night (this means using a 2x4 with the wide side facing up).

 

[OkChickens]

Quote:
This is a picture of it I found on google.
http://www.mitzenmacher.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/Hen Houses_008.jpg

I hope this will clarifies it up.

 

[flgardengirl]

Those are bars for the hens to walk from nest to nest. You will need to make roosts up higher with 2x4's for them to sleep on or they will keep using those to roost on and poop in the boxes.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Quote:
This is a picture of it I found on google.
http://www.mitzenmacher.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/Hen Houses_008.jpg

I hope this will clarifies it up.

That's what I was thinking you were talking about...as flgardengirl stated, those aren't made for roosting, they're made so the birds can walk back and forth to pick a nest after flying up to them.

You will need something higher. You can lower your nest boxes until they're almost on the floor if you need to in order to make room for a roosting 2 x 4. It really would help to have some pictures
of the inside of your coop so that we can be more specific in giving you help. You have a lot of birds so some are probably sleeping in the boxes because there's nowhere else for them to go. Just
a guess....

 

[OkChickens]

No when they roost on the metal they poop in the nest boxes. When they roost on the wood bars they just poop on the ground

-Nate

 

[feathersnuggles]

Quote:
You don't have a roost for them.....That IS your problem.

The wood bars ARE NOT a roost. The metal lip on the nest boxes is not a roost.

Make a proper sleeping roost, from a long piece of 2x4 wood. Locate it ABOVE everything in your picture.