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Kayte

Hens chucking straw out of nest box

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My girls should be starting to lay soon so I've been putting straw in the nest box to encourage them onto it but every morning they have chucked all the straw out, leaving a completely empty nest box... am i doing something wrong?

 

i thought it was the earthquake the first time it happened but they've done it every day since... any ideas?

 

ta

 

Kayte

GNR queenie

PP belle

(red eglu)

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Hi Kayte,

 

My Miss Pepperpot chucks the nest bedding onto her back just before she lays and she started doing this some time before she first laid an egg. Can't remember how long before, maybe a week or so.... The others don't do it so much.

 

When you first see them crouch properly you'll know what we mean. It's hard to describe. They cower down (a bit like they are afraid of you), flaten their chest to the floor and don't move. Makes catching hens very easy when they do this. Every day one of mine will crouch when I get nearby, but not all of them and not all the time.

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Hi Kayte, I can't really help with the reason why the bedding is being kicked out, but just wanted to say that you should be a bit careful using straw in the nest box as straw can harbour mould and parasites. There are lots of threads on here about suitable materials to use - and most seem to go for Hemcore or equivalent.

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i had heard the same about straw being ok, but not hay. I was hoping shredded paper would work because we have quite a lot of that, but I'll have a look at some of the information, thank you. To be honest the straw doesnt stay around long enough to harbour anything...and having it neatly deposited in the dropping tray every morning makes the tray a lot easier to clean out, but that would be the same for any bedding material I guess!

 

Maybe my girls are like yours Tracey and like a clean sheet. I guess i always thought they wanted a soft landing for their eggs!

 

 

 

:D

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I use shredded paper as well - it's best to tear the strands in half before you use them in the nestbox, though, so they don't get tangled round the chickens' legs. It quickly gets flattened down (especially if your hens like to sleep in the nest box!) - when it starts to get too flat and grubby I just hoick the whole thing out and pop it in the compost bin :)

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Mine also empty the egg box of bedding!! And then after a while started laying in the coup itself... so I've shiften the home around so the position they started to lay is where the egg box is now!

They still empty it out but eggs are easier to get at.

 

I use a mixture of shredded paper and straw - which I refresh every weekend.

 

Jan

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