Sleeping in nesting box

[Julieugar]

I have three 20 week old Pullets— they are the same age, but different breeds.
One Buff Orpington, one silver laced Wyandotte, one Ameracauna. As a newbie chicken owner, I let them sleep in their nesting boxes. They liked to huddle together in one of the three available boxes. Also, as a newbie I purchased a coop/ run combo with as I’m realizing now, not an ideal layout. The three nesting boxes are immediately next to the two roosting bars provided. Upon understanding my error, I’ve tried just about everything for the past 6 weeks to undo this bad habit.

I should also mention we have quite a bit of land, so we let them free range all day.
They return to the coop at the end of the day, but don’t visit too much during the day.

To solve the best sleeping issue: Firstly, I blocked off the boxes for a week, and unhappily they slept on their roosts, eventually they seemed ok with it. and I thought we were good to unblock the boxes. The first night back in they were good! But they immediately the next night reverted to sleeping in the boxes.

Noting the not ideal roost/ box location, I added a higher roosting bar, and two of the birds enjoyed them. Which left one chicken persisting in the box sleeping.

Hmmm I started all over again blocking off the boxes. I decided to give it another week or so…. and this time when I opened the boxes, I added fake eggs, hoping they would recognize the purpose of the boxes. Once again— we had a perfect night, and no one slept in the boxes. But the very next night, all three piled back into their favorite box.

I’m literally tearing my hair out over this situation. Not wanting to stress the girls out especially since they are close the the point of lay, I think…

At this point I really do not know how to proceed. I’m worried this will delay egg laying and set a very bad precedent. Am also concerned that because they free range I’ll never see eggs from them.

So I’m the morning, after I let them out of their coop. I feed them and keep them in their run for a few hours, hoping that will give them some opportunity to chill and provide some egg laying time.

I realize there are many factors at play here—but clearly I’m in a quandary.

Any advice greatly appreciated!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Generalized advice: I'd try blocking nests at night (and then unblocking once they get roosted and settled for the night) for a prolonged period, not just a day or two, but for weeks. Since they're getting closer to POL you should leave them unblocked during the day.

Any photos of your set up so we can troubleshoot your specific set up?

 

[Perris]

It's not a bad habit, it's natural; they hatched in a nest and it's all they've known as chicks. You could just leave them be, and clean up any poop in the nest box in the morning. They will grow out of it on their own and move to the roosts when they are ready. Which will be before they are old enough to lay eggs.

 

[MountainWoman73]

I don't think it's worth tearing your hair out over. It's pretty common for my younger pullets to like to sleep in a box, and for the the older adult hens to sleep on the roosts or the shelf above the nests. I find mine will go to the highest available roosting space, so the bar you added that is higher than your boxes will probably help.

 

[Julieugar]

Generalized advice: I'd try blocking nests at night (and then unblocking once they get roosted and settled for the night) for a prolonged period, not just a day or two, but for weeks. Since they're getting closer to POL you should leave them unblocked during the day.

Any photos of your set up so we can troubleshoot your specific set up?

 

[Julieugar]

Here are images of the coop/ run I have. As I mentioned, since getting my first time chickens, I now realize the faulty design…Since my post, Ive made quite a few tweaks. I added a sloped top to the nesting boxes which were previously open. I sealed off light coming in through cracks to make it darker.

I had made this adjustment a mi th also —The two roosting bars are right next to the boxes, so I installed a higher tree branch as an option. Two of the three like this higher branch.

I will continue to block off the boxes as you suggested for a few weeks. But as they are 20 weeks, will this mess with their first egg laying???

Also to mention I open the coop at sunrise, unblock the nesting boxes and keep them in the run until 9. This is to encourage them eating their feed and perhaps get used to laying in the coop, for future. The run/ coop stays open all day as the free range. They return at night fall.

will this help?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Photos were very helpful! Couple of things, some just FYI:

- Nest boxes don't need to be as dark as people think
- The top on the nest boxes plus the new roost was a good idea, the old roosts are so poorly placed. I would remove the old ones if it's not too difficult, as they're otherwise just in the way as poop catchers.
- Since you're currently unblocking the nests during day time that shouldn't interfere with them using the nests when the time comes. It's a hassle but I would continue to block them at night, and unblock either later at night or at sunrise (my sleeping schedule does not agree with the latter!) I would also manually put the one bird that's not roosting up on the roosts to see if that convinces her to use it.

 

[Julieugar]

Photos were very helpful! Couple of things, some just FYI:

- Nest boxes don't need to be as dark as people think
- The top on the nest boxes plus the new roost was a good idea, the old roosts are so poorly placed. I would remove the old ones if it's not too difficult, as they're otherwise just in the way as poop catchers.
- Since you're currently unblocking the nests during day time that shouldn't interfere with them using the nests when the time comes. It's a hassle but I would continue to block them at night, and unblock either later at night or at sunrise (my sleeping schedule does not agree with the latter!) I would also manually put the one bird that's not roosting up on the roosts to see if that convinces her to use it.

Thanks so much for your reply! I will try your suggestion! Wish me luck—we’ve been waiting for our first eggs. I hope retraining them will make it go better, we don’t want poop covered eggs or egg eaters

 

[Corndog7]

Did you find a solution? My chicks are 12 weeks and doing the same thing. I also have the same coop

 

[jpalmatier83]

Is the new roost as close to the ceiling as it looks to me? They might be having trouble getting balanced on it without hitting the ceiling when they jump up. If that happens a couple times they may just say forget it and head to the boxes (which are at the same height as the old roosts).

I know it’s a bit of work, but if youre still bothered by this, can you take out the old and new roosts and install one at half the height? Should be high enough to make it tempting, but low enough they can get on it easily.