Sleeping in egg boxes.....

[Faso]

So, I recently(last sunday) added a 8 month old barred rock to my flock of 3 month old RIRs(only 2). The past 2 nights i noticed the rock chicken on the roost sleeping and the other 2 sleeping snuggled in the egg laying box.

I do have golf balls in there...What do I do? I don't want the barred rock to lay an egg and have these 2 eat it since they are sleeping in there. How do I stop this from happening? Do you think they don't want to sleep by the older chicken? There is no pecking going on but the younger ones are much less mature.

Help! I don't want poop on my eggs! lol

Mike

 

[Ridgerunner]

The poop on the egg is the potential problem, not egg eating.

What is happening is that the older bird is making life miserable on the roost before they go to sleep. The young ones are looking for a safe place to spend the night.

That happens a lot with my broody raised chicks. She takes them to the roost and they are used to sleeping up there, but when she weans them and they are on their own, another adult gets brutal and they look for a safer place. Your nest is probably the highest thing around after the roosts.

I put a roost over my nest boxes. It's a little lower than the main roost, it's separated horizontally a few feet to keep them out of range of the brute, and it's higher than the nest boxes. That becomes their safe haven, not inside the nest box.

If you have room, I suggest you put up another roost, higher than the nest boxes but lower than the main roost and separated a bit horizontally. Since they are in the habit of sleeping in the nest box you might need to move them to the roost a few times after bedtime so they get used to it, but they should catch on pretty quickly When they mature enough to make their way in the pecking order, they'll move back to the main roost.