One of our hens has recently taken up sleeping at nights in one of the nest boxes. We only have 2 hens, one sleeps on the roost but this hen has never been able to get up onto the roost so she sleeps on a lower roost. We had a few weeks of cold weather and that is when she started sleeping in the outside attached nest box. Head first into the box. Of course she started pooping in the box which meant that I had to clean the bedding in the nest more often. Last week I removed the plastic container and closed off her favorite box. Tonight she was using the second box to sleep in. How can I stop her from doing this? Build a ramp for her to use to get up to the upper roost?
She can't get to the top roost? She is cold. That's why she is sleeping in the nest box. She needs to be next to her buddy where they both will get warmth from each other. Put in a lower roost.
That's easy. Build her a ladder and close off the nest. If she chooses to sleep on the floor, well I guess she will.
Awe, let the hen sleep where she wants. I do agree with Hunter that she is probably cold. I have some silkies that sleep in one of my nest boxes. It is no more difficult to clean than the floor. As long as you have another nest box there is a clean spot to lay eggs!
Sleeping in the nesting boxes isn't bad if you don't mind poopy eggs, chickens poop 80% of their waste at night while sleeping. We had this same problem and we built a ramp for our "special needs" chicken. We also added 2 younger chicks to our flock of 4 and they started sleeping in the nesting boxes because the big girls chased them off the roost. Then the HEAD chick (that's me) started pushing them off of the roost and giving them a taste of their own medicine and it only took 2 nights before they all got the idea and started sleeping together. At times I have had to put cardboard boxes in the nesting boxes so they can't get in until morning when the boxes suddenly disapear.
Now that is funny. I've had to show mine who the daddy rooster really in around here and it does work. 80% huh? My boots don't believe that. They find to much everywhere else for that to be so.
It took a few nights but I just scooped my hen out of the nesting box and put her on the roost. She is super small and I thought she couldn't get up there. Now age sleeps there turns out she was just lazy.
I have a new flock of 5 chicks. They are 8 weeks old and have now decided to sleep in the nesting box. They were all roosting at night, but we have had a few chilly nights of 50-60 degrees. Is it ok to let them do that for awhile until they are bigger or should I try and kick them out of there so they don't get used to it. We have 3 boxes, and they only use 1 right now. I assume once they are bigger they won't all fit into one. Right now they all pile on top of each other. It's kind of cute actually.
