Do anyone elses hens do this ....

Our five girls are doing well after bringing them home on Friday - we have had five eggs each day so far - mostly laid in the nesting boxes.

Tonight when we went to put their pophole down they had put themselves to bed and three of them were each in a nesting box  - the other two were snuggled down into the straw nearby (there are only 3 nesting boxes).  In fact none of them have seemed interested in the perches.

Has anyone else had their hens using the nesting boxes as beds rather than just for laying eggs in?


Dawn

No contest Auntie - the comfy straw nest everytime.

Does this mean we should make 2 more boxes so that there are no squabbles at bedtime!

Dawn

Yep mine used to but I went and "turfed" them out of the nest boxes, they drop about 2/3 of there poo when settling down for the night ! you don't want that in your nest box. I also used to put them on the perches at night for a start    might have been a bit excessive that tho'.

It's a matter of scale isn't it.  I only have one nesting box so it only tkes 15 seconds to remove the poos in the morning before they lay  :!:

Yes Dawn they do, all in the right order else we have a punch up, as they get in their spots according to rank !  

Hi,
i have about 70 rescued battery hens who prefer to snuggle down as most of my rare breeds perch, im not really sure why though.