[purpletart]

Hi, new to keeping chooks, have three girls who seem to have settled on OK, apart from the fact they seem to prefer to cuddle up together on the nest box rather than on the roost. Is this normal and how do I get them to use the roost?

[SMD66]

go in once they are settled and lift them onto the perch, you may need to do this for a few nights.

[janeheritage]

Our girls tried to go into the nest box for quite a while. We cured them by cutting a piece of cardboard the right size to block off the nest box and putting it in there before they went to bed and taking it out when they woke up.

They learned to use the perches in a couple of weeks. Dumb birds 

[The Good Life]

I put ours on the perches to which they jumped back down or just sat there looking not too sure about it and then finally got down. We tend to have 2 up, 2 in nest boxes and 1 on floor below the others not in the firing line tho luckily  . So we just leave them to sort them selves out at bedtime.

[SMD66]

covering the nest boxes is a good idea if they wont stay on the perches.  At least they wont get used to sleeping in them and filling them with poo to lay eggs onto!

[Chicken n Veg]

A couple of my hens still tried to sleep in the nest boxes after quite a few weeks of lifting them onto the perches every evening. It's not that they didn't know what to do, just that didn't want to. After a few weeks they would still try and sleep in the nest box, but would then reluctantly climb on the perches themselves as soon as I looked in and "rumbled them".

Now, I remove the nextboxes early evening and replace when I let them out in the morning. When I get round to it I will modify the nestboxes so I can block them at night.

[ScottBarton]

Why is it such a problem for them to sleep in the nest boxes rather than the perch??

[janeheritage]

Because where they sleep, they poo, and you don't want poo on your eggs!  Pleh pleh