Sleeping/resting in Nesting Boxes

[TexasChickenDance]

Our chickens have not started egg laying but they do rest/sleep in the boxes. Are they suppose to do this? If not, why?

 

[Chook-A-Holic]

You do not want chickens roosting in the nesting boxes due to them pooping in them. What I do is to block off the nests at night and unblock during the day until they start laying. They will learn that the nesting boxes are for laying not sleeping. Also make sure your roost poles are higher than your nesting boxes. Chickens like to roost at the highest point whether it be a pole or a nest.

 

[MuranoFarms]

Also...if your roosts are above the nesting boxes you need a droppings board. So no-one gets pooped on!

 

[stephhassler]

Well, closing off the nest boxes at night works - only if you are an early riser. I found when I closed the boxes at night, if I didn't get out early enough in the morning, there would be eggs on the coop floor. So, for me, it is easier to let them roost in the nest boxes, make sure I have enough bedding in the nests, and simply clean out the poop daily. The nests stay fairly clean and I don't have eggs on the floor.

 

[Imp]

I had a hen go broody a few months ago, and I was able to easily break her. Since then another hen has been roosting in the nest buckets every night, on eggs. I take the eggs every day. Don't know what she's up to- free ranges all day, and never poops in the nests.

Imp- Not broody- just a clean evening babysitter

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I broke a rule. My nesting boxes might be higher than the roost poles as chook-a-holic suggested......at least the board blocking in the front of each nest would be higher. That may have been one of my problems. It has taken me months to break the habbit of araucanas wanting to roost in the boxes. I think I finally have it down. At night I go in to collect eggs and lock them up and they are all in the roost. I had 5 stuborn chickens that insisted I throw them off the nest each night. I wouldn't recommend you allow them their choice, because cleaning nesting boxes by hand is not near as much fun as shoveling out poop covered leaves and pine/cypress needles from under the roost.

 

[cackilacky]

My bigger birds (BO and BA) like to sleep in the next boxes. I think they are too big and fat to get on the roost. I let them do it. I guess it's kind of gross, but our eggs never seem dirty. Now I realize we should have designed our coop a little differently, so that the nest boxes could be blocked off, but hindsight is 20/20!