Should I worry about where they sleep?

[Chickenlady2013]

Here's my question. I have 4 laying hens and six 9 week olds. They all sleeping in the nesting boxes at night but on the roosts in the daytime. Should I cover the boxes at night, except one so that they will use the roost. My leghorn usually lays early in the morning so that's why I thought of leaving on open. The ten of them sleeping six of ten boxes. Thx for any advice.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

Do they have a place to roost where they are not right next to the older hens? Sometimes bullying on the roosts can be very bad when you are introducing new birds. It is possible they are being driven from the roosts at night. I would make sure they have a safe place to roost away from the others and start putting them on the roost at night and see if maybe that helps.

 

[Chickenlady2013]

Actually i had the younger ones first. But the older ones squeeze together in a box and sometimes its older and younger ones in one box. It seems they all want to be close together. My RIR sits on the divider between the nest boxes. They freaked out cause I was able to close off two boxes, so they lay on top of each other in the other ones. Im closing the others the next couple of days.