sleeping in the nest boxes

[privatehire]

i ma newbie so plz forgive me if this sound a bit daft...i bought 3 amber link pullets, got the a nice home, but my girls like to sleep the nest boxes and not on the perches....will things work out or do i show the the KFC box!!....(just kidding)

 

[Red]

I have a light sussex hen who is three years old, and two BSL hens who are four. They have a huge house to sleep in, with perches and a nest box slightly lower at the far end. Sometimes they will be good girls and choose to sleep on their perches, whereas other times they will sleep in the nest box and mess it up

I think it depends what mood the chickens are in. I have heard that if the height of the nest box is higher than the height of the perches then they will choose to sleep in the nest box, as extra height means extra security!

Also, i think you can 'teach' a chicken that you want them to sleep on the perches by going down each night and prodding them out of the nest box onto the perches - i think i read that somewhere on the forum

 

[Jashdon]

In our first chicken coop we had this problem. When we built the second coop we built the roosts higher and put the nest boxes just a few feet off the ground and that seemed to solve the problem. I'm not sure if the chickens in the first house that have gotten used to sleeping in the boxes will ever make the transition over to the roosts, but I wish they would because they just poop in the nesting boxes all night. I suppose I could build a door on the front of the boxes to keep them out at night.

 

[ozark hen]

good replies here, yes, the roosts need to be higher to give them a sense of "safety". I have one little silkie/mix roo who was a rescue bird who is afraid of everything...he hides/sleeps in one of the nesting boxes everynight. I let him ...after all his name is...Captain Jack Sparrow!

 

[farm_mom]

You may also have to put something in front of the box openings at night to break them from the habit. Good Luck!

 

[mudderhen]

Several of my babies sleep in the nest boxes at night, too. Some still huddle together on the floor, and a few will perch on the wood used to separate the boxes, but I just clean the boxes out regulaly, because our house is still a work in progress, and we haven't got the perches up yet. Theonly time they get kicked out of the nest boxes is when they start throwing the pine shavings out of the nest boxes and onto the floor.