won't leave nests alone

[spookyone]

Hi, Our hens keeps cleaning out the bedding in the nests. Last 2 days the nests been bare of any nesting material at the end of the day. Some of the hens just started to lay and other still just looking in the boxes but have not started yet. All are young hens. Will it stop? ideas??

 

[ChicKat]

Hi Spookyone,

When one of my pullets began laying she did get every last scrap of the wood shavings out of the nest. (I thought that I had a psychotoc chicken lol). Now they have settled down to a routine. I'm lucky in that when/if they do get it cleared out, it is a plastic depression, and not likely to hurt the egg because of the curves.

They do settle down some. Mine still do the get-rid-of-the-wood-shavings routine sometimes. I think that they would like something softer. If your nestbox is such that it is hard, some folks have velcroed in some washable carpet. It would be very difficult to dislodge, and if it was ever soiled you could remove and wash.

Chickens--- well what can I say?