[wilson5]

My three chooks are using their nesting box's for toilets and then sleeping on top of it.   Have tried blocking them off on a night just found that they all were very unsettled.  The light sussex was perching but she is older and hopfully near to laying (about 6/7 months old) could it be that the other two are younger or as I suspect they are both male!!!  Their tail feathers seem to be getting longer and straggly, they are mixed ancona/moran.    They also puff up their neck feathers when having a spat also have noticed one of the mixed hen seems to be getting picked on with specks of blood on its wings?  Anyone got any  pics of moran or ancona cockerels?

Hope this makes sense its late me very tired but can only get my hands on laptop when three kids have gone to bed

 

[SMD66]

you could try lifting them onto the perches once they are settled into the nest boxes, if it's almost dark go in with a torch and quietly move them.  I had to do this for 2 weeks before mine roosted properly but it was worth it for the clean eggs.
Sorry can't help with the breeds, someone else may be along soon though. 

[peter o]

hi
I had a similar problem with hens sleeping in the nest boxes I used to just pick out the poo but now I put some bits of board between the nest boxes and the coop to stop them geting in at night. I then have beautiful clean nest boxes every day.

[dizzylizzie]

all my ex-batts sleep in the nest boxes ...to be honest after the life they had had, if thats where they want to sleep, they can. Every morning though, as soon as i let them out, i poop scoop, it only takes two ticks and it keep every where clean

[scrappydoo]

Hi All as I've said before I have six girls about 7 - 8 months old but 3 new girls from grannieannie two weeks ago which are probably around 14-15 weeks, they are all in the same Coop/Run although the youngsters are often chased back into the coop during the day. Although there are two seperate perches the young ones have started sleeping in the nest box's (and pooping) plus on top of a wall mounted plastic container (under bed type) with all their food in . This has obviously upset the sleep patterns of my older girls as I found an egg on top of it this morning . My concern is that if as suggested I cover the nest box's, even though most days they are let out around 0630 - 0730 where are they likely to lay their eggs?

Regards

Steve

[SMD66]

cover the nest boxes late afternoon, go and remove it when they are all asleep then they can lay in the boxes in the morning.

[scrappydoo]

Duh !! Thanks Samantha, good Idea .