Where to sleep?

[Jenn1399]

How do I teach my girls to NOT SLEEP in the nest box?
The same 4 sleep in there nightly. The other 3 are on the high perch.
there is a low, smaller perch that I installed when they were young. Some still hang out on it sometimes, so I’ve left it. I’ve never seen anyone sleep on the small one though.
you can see the higher perch & low one in the photos.
I’ve had chickens before, but I was able to close up the nest box area to block them/teach them. I’m not having the same luck this time. I do feel like the 1 higher perch is long enough for the 7 girls.
any insight?

 

[sourland]

My guess is that dominant birds are not allowing the others on the high perch.

 

[CluckerFamily]

I go into the coop at night with only a headlamp and move the chickens onto the roost if needed. I also have more roosts than needed.

 

[Ryguy3684]

If they're too tight on the roost, with all 7, the dominant birds may not allow the others to roost high. The shorter roost looks pretty thin, but it's hard to tell from the picture. If it's too thin, they may find it uncomfortable to roost on. Can you cover the nesting boxes with a piece of cardboard to block them from using it?

 

[333113]

You might try hanging around when they are going to roost at night and just listening and observing. Settling on who takes what roost spot can take quite a few minutes, with everyone jostling and jockeying for just the right arrangement.

If your nestbox hens go straight to the nestbox and don't participate in making the roosting arrangements, then either they gave up a while ago because they were always getting excluded, or they are not comfortable with either of the roosts. They may be too close to the wall, or too tight, too thin as Ryguy3684 mentioned, too wobbly now that they are grown, or just too high for their preferences.

You could try adding a temporary lower roost to see whether they will use it. It will have to be strong enough to support their weight and a bit higher than the nestbox for them to consider it a good alternative.

 

[rosemarythyme]

How long is the roost you have?

What's the issue with blocking the nest box here, difficult to access?

 

[aart]

That lower roost looks too skinny to be comfortable.
Can't quite tell where nets i in relation to roosts, betting nest is higher.
Aframes are tight on space.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The photo that would really help would show the relationship between the two roosts and the nests. Chickens typically like to sleep as high as they can. The ones highest in the pecking order get to sleep where they want to, the others make do with what is left. This is really common with mine when I have different maturity levels. The mature sleep on the roosts, the others sleep somewhere else. Yours all look the same age so you shouldn't have that problem. Even when I have a lot of extra roost space the juveniles still don't sleep on the main roosts with the adults.

It could still be a dominance/pecking order issue. How old are they? Looks like they could be pullets getting ready to mature into hens. If they are maturing at different rates there could be some dominance/pecking order issues going on. As one matures she may try to move up into the pecking order. To me that is pretty unlikely but not totally impossible.

Sometimes where is left to go is your nests. I solved this problem by putting a juvenile roost lower than the main roosts, higher than the nests, and horizontally separated from the main roost to give them a safe place to go that is not my nests. Now instead of some sleeping in the nests regularly it's down to one every three or four years.

What does your main roost look like? How high is it compared to the nests and how long is it? What is it made of? Inadequate roosting space is a possibility. Looks like those chickens should all be able to fly. Sometimes with frizzles or siklies that can be an issue.

Same questions on the lower roosts. How high and how long. How thick? If that is the lower roost in that first photo it could be too thin. Is it wood or metal?

Are those in the nest sleeping or laying?

I like having the nests open before they start laying so you can solve the problem before you get poopy eggs. You have a problem, now let's get it fixed. The more you can tell us what you are working with the better the chances we can come up with suggestions that actually fit your situation.

 

[Jenn1399]

Hi Friends!
Thank you everyone for your comments. Based on what you had to say, I knew what I had to do! This weekend I altered the design of the nest box so we have an interior door that we can close in the late afternoon & open back up in the morning. I’m hoping we don’t have to continue this process for too long before we get them all trained.
today was the 5th night& forgot to close the interior door until after dark tonight. When I went out, I only had to kick out 2 ladies!
thanks for the tips everyone!!
here our new setup—(I did end up adding 1 more wood stop after this photo, since some bedding was getting pushed out the door)
Thanks again!!

 

[Jenn1399]

Oh!!! & you’ll see I added another roost right behind the nest box too!!!
& included a bonus photo of pinky, our salmon Favorelle