Roosting in the nestbox despite my best efforts

[writermom]

I moved my adult hen into a new coop this past weekend, and despite the fact that I've provided plenty of roosts that are all higher than the next boxes, she's chosen to sleep (and poop) in the nest box. She always sleeps in one box and lays her eggs in the other box, so the eggs aren't poopy, but I don't want her to teach that "roost in the nestbox" behavior to the chicks that I'll be introducing to the coop shortly.

I've provided a ladder from the nest box area to the roosts, but she doesn't appear to use it. Perhaps she can't navigate the ladder? Thoughts?

This is a photo of the inside of the hen house just before we put the side on it.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Can you cover / block the nesting boxes at night and remove first thing in the morning?

 

[writermom]

Quote:
That's a thought. Or, I could just remove the nest boxes completely at night and return them to the house in the morning. Of course, that will leave an inviting shelf that she can sleep on, but maybe I can somehow make the shelf less appealing.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I've also seen on here that people will go in to the coop at night when it's dark and physically move the bird to the roost. Apparently they don't see well at night and won't move back if it's dark. That may get her used to the roost.
Good luck.

 

[Black Creek Poultry]

If at all possible, maybe cutting a small hole in the bottoms of your nests, not large enough for an egg to fall through though, or even 1" chicken wire for a nest floor???? may eliminate the messy part?
John

 

[WitksChicks]

I've had the same issue with one of my hens. We blocked off the nest boxes after we knew the egg laying was done for the day. Then after they (6 hens) went to roost at night we would check and see if all were on the roost bars or in the nest boxes. The hen that was in nest box (she wasn't really "in" the box, she was roosting on the edge of it), was physically moved to roosting bars. (I also added another 1.5' of roosting bar to be sure everyone had "space" to manuever into their nightly position.) Then early in the morning we removed the board from the nest boxes so they were available for egg laying. It took about 10 days to get them all to go directly to the roosting bars instead of the nest boxes, but boy it was sure worth it. . ."clean nest boxes = clean eggs".