When chickens are sleeping...? ANOTHER UPDATE

[Chicky Joy]

I'm trying to get my chickens to use their roost instead of the edge of their nesting box to sleep on. If I went out there at night and moved them from the box to the roost what would they do? Would they stay there? Would they wake up and go back where they were? Would they be really annoyed with me?

 

[miss_jayne]

some sleep right through picking them up and some flip out.

cover their eyes gently with your hand to keep them calm. they probably will jump down and go back where they were, but it's worth a try.

instead, you may want to think about a slanted piece of wood over the nesting boxes so they cannot roost there. (that'll learn 'em!)

best to you!

 

[Chirpy]

Actually that's exactly what you want to do. Go in, after dark, and physically move them to the roost. You may need to do this for a week (I had one girl I had to move for almost two weeks before she figured it out) but they will, almost always, figure it out and start going to the roost by themselves after a few days.

 

[Chicky Joy]

Quote:
Hmmm. I just figured it was a possibility. I thought it might be a way of training them to use the roost. I'll need to ask my husband where he hid my flashlight. He's gone overnight...grrr.

 

[Chicky Joy]

Ok, so I went out and moved all of the chickens onto the proper roost. They apparently stayed there. However, when I went out to open up the coop and feed them this morning it appeared that three of the hens just sat on the roost and layed their eggs from up there. I found the three eggs on the floor below the roost. AAhhh! Now what do I do?

 

[cmom]

Put some golf balls or fake eggs in their nests. Ater I did that I have never found an egg outside the nest boxes. Mine did lay some from the roost when they first started laying.

 

[Chirpy]

it appeared that three of the hens just sat on the roost and layed their eggs from up there. I found the three eggs on the floor below the roost.

Sorry, I had to laugh out loud at this. Sometimes it just seems they try to thwart everything we do.

Keep making sure they are on the roost to sleep at night. Take the idea of the others here and put golf balls or fake eggs in their nest boxes and they should figure out to 'put' their own eggs in the nest boxes pretty soon.

Good luck​

 

[steffpeck]

When we first got our chickens, we did not put nest boxes in until they were getting close to laying. That did a couple of things. They learned to use the roosts, and then when we put the nest boxes in, we put fake eggs in the boxes and they learned that they were for laying eggs. I have never had a problem with the chickens roosting or sleeping in the nest boxes, nor them laying eggs in the wrong place, until now, I have a 12 week old Dominique chick that doesn't fit in age wise with either group, and she usually resorts to the nest boxes, I keep moving her, and hopefully she will figure it out, and hopefully the bigger chickens will let her eventually roost with them.

 

[Chicky Joy]

Well, of our 8 hens 4 used the nesting boxes and 4 layed from the roost today. They do pretty well using the boxes most days but it seems like I threw them for a loop by moving them. Oh well. I'll try the golf ball trick to reinforce the idea in their little brains.

It was rather funny going out and moving them in the night. They woke up, as least most of the way. One chicken fell off the roost and I had to pick her up and put her where she belonged, again

. Hopefully by the time a week or so has passed the girls and I will have all this stuff figured out.

 

[debilorrah]

I did laugh out loud too. How high is your roost? Ours is about 4-5 feet off the ground, however, their nesting boxes are underneah it with straw on top. They only have about 18 inches from the roost to the top of the boxes.