sleeping in the nesting box

[gtunknect]

Well, now I wonder:

All 6 were sleeping in the nesting box. I didn't think anything was wrong, but now they are too big, so two sleep outside the box. I have 2 roosts. How high should they be? I like the 2x4 idea, and will attempt that.

Now, since they are 12 weeks old, and are used to the nesting box being used as a group bed, what do I do? Should I just shut it off for now until another 4 weeks pass?

And as far as their poop--no way around that. It seems that's all they do! And I don't eat the egg shell, so I am not worried about that

Thanks!

 

[lunkerchicken]

I had the same problem so as soon as I noticed it, I boarded up the entrance to the nesting box. I will reopen when they start laying. They now roost up higher on the roosting perch and all seem quite happy! My roost is a 2 x 4 (4" side up) and is about 14 - 16" higher than the nesting box.

 

[eggsited chickens]

My chickens are 10 weeks old. Before they were able to go outside, they would be all over the coop...roosts inside the nesting box, on top of the boxes, and on the ground. If you keep woodshavings in the nesting boxes, it's easy enough to clean if they poop.

Now that my chicks can go outside, The majority of my chicks roost on the top roost that is about 5' off the floor. there are 5 that roost on the middle roost ~3' off the floor, 4 sleep on top of the nesting boxes, and the rest on the floor. Personally I'm not too worried about them going in the nesting boxes, it's kind of a place for them to go when they want to get away from the rest of the flock too.

I just use a scraper to scrape off all the poop on the nesting boxes, and they look good again.

 

[cmom]

I would close off the nest boxes until they are ready to lay. Also I would make sure the roosts are higher. The birds tend to go to the highest spot to roost. My original roosts were at the same height as the nest boxes. I have raised it to just above the boxes. It's no fun when they get used to sleeping in the nest boxes and then you reach in and get poopy eggs. This happened to me in the beginning. I thought it was cute. I finally got tired of cleaning the poopy eggs and the poop out of the nest boxes. I don't usually wash my eggs until I use them. Also I leave them out on a counter I have for them, my egg counter. As long as I don't wash the eggs, I have left them on the counter for as long as a month. The bloom protects the eggs. When I wash the eggs I immediately put them in the refrigerator. Now I sell so many eggs that my demand is more than my supply so I just got 25 more birds.

 

[greenthumbmama]

Quote:
Thanks for this info. We were wondering why we needed to close off the nesting boxes and now I totally understand why! Poopy eggs do not sound fun!