What to do about chickens roosting and pooping in the nests

[cajunlizz]

Yes , the younger teens learn from the older ones .


I never had a problem of them knowing where they belong . They never get into the nesting boxes unless they lay . I have several teens now that are beginning the laying game . Went into coop yesterday and had 4 in each a nesting box and 2 hours later , picked 4 beautiful eggs .

Break of day , I watch them existing the coop into the run area . they only go back in coop to lay and right bac out . LATE afternoons , its so cute to watch them all start to look up at the sky .

They start entering the coop back one by one . Like they playing follow the leader .

I can go into the coop after its dark and they are ALL roosting ....

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Yup...I put my nesting boxes lower then my roosts and they will climb on anything that is highest LOL I have two roosts...one 6 foot high and one about 4 and there is enough room for all 14 of my chickens to each have 20 inches or more of roost space if the utilize both roosts...nope they all cram onto the highest one then peck at each other till they get to where they want to be. Chickens are too funny.

 

[ravenfeathers]

Quote:
how high are your roosts and how high are your nest boxes. putting the boxes lower than the roosts is a good first step. another one is to make the perch outside the nest boxes too small to be comfortable, maybe a 1.5" dowel or something else that's no fun to grip while sleeping. also, as someone above said, it sounds like you might want to move your perches out a bit. that way, even if all your other adjustments don't work, the poop will at least fall on the floor instead of in the nests.

my nesting boxes are all on the floor , side by side . BUT Roosting area is across the coop .... DH built them a roost that is 8 ft. high , looks like a trellis made out of 2x4's . they love it .

sorry, i misquoted. i meant those Qs for the OP.

 

[sfmac]

Well the roosts are now quite a bit higher than the nests, the roosting bar is moved out further from the nest boxes and the nests themselves are closed off so they can't get in. Most of the barred rocks are still roosting on the bar on the nest boxes. The rhode island reds and one of the barred rocks are now using the regular roosts.

I may just eliminate the roost on the nest boxes to force them off of it. The rocks are now about 3 months old the reds are 2 months old so I should have some time before they start laying. Yes?

 

[cajunlizz]

I will tell you what works for my flock .

entering the coop , on left side are 8 plastic milk crates , side by side . BELOW is Pic

On total opposite side of the coop is a 8 ft. tall roost area . Takes the whole width of the coop . DH made it like a large trellis . no pooping on are around the nesting boxes . Roost is made of 2x4's and all poop falls in pine shavings that the whole coop is covered with .

 

[ravenfeathers]

Quote:
congratulations on your success! your birds can start laying anytime from about 18 to 24 weeks, so you do have a bit of time left before they'll need the nest boxes. maybe if you took the perch off, they'd get compltely out of the habit of snoozing there and wouldn't go back when it was time to put the perches back up. it's certainly worth a try.

 

[cajunlizz]

I would not remove the roost nor the nesting boxes . The chickens have to familiarize themselves with everything without the coop . You change anything with disrupt them and set them back .

I added 2 more nesting boxes in my coop making 8 instead of 6 and trust me they notice any little change . they stayed 3 days without laying .

 

[Beekissed]

I had the same problem, but my nest boxes have folding roosts, so I folded them up each night and put them down again each morning. Pain in the butt but it worked. After a couple of nights of having nowhere to sleep but the floor, the younger teens kind of got the message to use the roosts.

Now I have an evil EE that will occasionally think she is sleeping in the nests....I pull her out by the head in a not-so-gentle manner and boot her toot to the roost. A couple of nights of that and she doesn't try it for a couple more months!

 

[kwynn's birds Alaska]

I had to move my roost away from the nest boxes because of the pooping. I put it higher up, and away from the boxes. One still likes to sleep on top of the nesting boxes, and she poos in one, and they never use it. I have 8 hens, and they mainley use one nest in the corner. I read they share nests, and i have gone in there to see 4 of them piled in one nest. Quite the sight. I clean the poo out of one nest every day, but they still all pile in the one nest in the corner.

 

[sfmac]

Before seeing the caution against removing the roost on the nesting box, I took it off. It took a couple of nights but they now all settle down for the evening on the regular roosts. Hopefully it will all come out in the wash once they start laying.

sfmac