Sleeping in nest boxes?

[Oregonchix]

I've been letting my 7 week old chicks stay outside all day in their coop and fenced run. I'm about ready to take the leap to having them stay out there 24/7. I've read that you don't want them sleeping in the nesting boxes but if I were a chicken those look the most like my brooder sleeping arrangements! I was going to put straw in the nesting boxes but why wouldn't my chicks just sleep in there instead of roosting on the roosts, or is normal chicken behavior to sleep on a roost? I put vinyl flooring material under the roosts for easy cleaning but wasn't planning on putting any shavings or straw in that area of the coop. (I have one of those prefab coops where the two roosts are approx 2" off the floor--the nest boxes are at that same level just adjacent to the roosts.)

Thanks for any help!

 

[azelgin]

If you let your you chickens start sleeping in the nest boxes, it will be a real pain in the rear, to get them to stop doing it. They will look at that as a perfect place to spend the night, when you first put them out there. Trust me, you don't want to get it started. Chickens poop where they sleep. Sleeping in the nest box = poopy eggs. Poopy eggs =

.
Make sure the roosts are higher than the nest boxes. If, you don't have any grown chickens already laying, close off the nest boxes, until your new chickens are close to laying age. If, you already have chickens of laying age, keep kicking the youngsters out of the nests at bedtime.

 

[Oregonchix]

Thank you. I think I will partition off the nest boxes for now. I have 5 chickens and they are all young and not laying right now so that might be best.