What to do if sleeping in nesting box?

[hippychickster]

Hi everyone, newbie chicken owner here. (and LOOOVING it) And thanks for this awesome website. I just got great answers on my sex on another thread in mins!

My question is regarding their nesting box. Seems I have one or two that sleep in the same box. they were all doing so at first but then I closed it off for a couple weeks. I opened them back up the other day and one sleeps in there and the other near her in the same small box. I do clean out the poop every morning but they are going to start laying hopefully soon.

They do have roosts higher than the boxes. I also have pushed her through a couple times but she just comes right back because I find poop in the one box. I do have golf balls in there but that doesn't seem to bother her.

My questions to my fellow chicken community are:

Should I close off the boxes again? They are about ready to lay eggs in the next few weeks.

Should I not worry about it?

Any advice/ Suggestions?

Thanks so much in advance!

 

[sourland]

I would close off the boxes again.

 

[hippychickster]

okay will do thanks!

 

[CarolJ]

Yep - close off the boxes. I'm dealing with the same thing. Since I have many that are laying, I cut some plastic fencing to fit over the nest boxes - and put some screw-in hooks on the corners of the boxes. Then each evening I put the plastic fencing over the nest boxes - placing the corners over the hooks to hold it in place - & I remove it each morning. Hopefully just another day or two and I won't need to do that anymore.

 

[hippychickster]

Thanks for the info!
I looked in the boxes last night and there were 3 of them using one box! One was in the box completely, one was laying on top of her 1/2 in and 1/2 out and the other was doing the same on her. I didn't have the heart to push them all out so I left them and just will close it off today.

We have plenty of roosts 2 high and one low so i'm not sure why they like that ONE box so much.

 

[aggiemae]

Chickens seem to do things a certain way until one of then thinks up something different and the rest of them follow.

I would close the boxes until after you get an egg.

You can also try making the coop smaller right at sunset so they are crowded and forced to roost. I did this purely by accident. When the weather halted coop building and I had to add a roost to the very crowded brooder. They are in the coop now and after a few nights of them fighting about spots on the roost and ending up sleeping on the floor I go sick of being greeted by poopy feathers and feet every morning. I finally rigged up a plywood barricade that forced them to roost to avoid stepping on each other. It worked.