Patridge bantam chicken poorly foot?

[drliz]

sorry, i'm sure this is an obvious question, but i've had a look around the FAQ & search areas and can't quite find the answer...

anyway, my 3 girls are settling in, they're around 18 wks old so not laying yet, still small pink combs so i'm not expecting any for a few weeks.

they seem to think the nest box area of the eglu is a toilet! i'm emptying the poo tray every 3 days or so, and finding more poo in the nest box than in the tray. i was going to use shredded paper or straw as nesting material - but there doesn't seem much point until they start to lay - or am i wrong?

so my questions are:

is this toilet behaviour normal? does it stop when they start laying in the box?

what do other people use as nest box material? is it necessary to use anything - nothing in the leaflets from omlet that came with the eglu says anything about it. How often do you change the nesting material if used?

any tips for easy cleaning of a box full of poo gratefully accepted!

thank you

Liz

[chucknette]

Hi Liz

 

 

They are squishing into the nest box because they are still babies

 

When they start to lay they will only go in there to lay their eggs.

 

Ocassionaly one will sleep in there for the odd night but not too often.

 

You can put aubiose, easibed or shredded paper in the box as it will make it easier for you to poo pick in the morngings.

 

Some people put a plant pot or something similar in there to stop them doing this and remove it in the morning.

 

You could put a piece of paper on the bottom, cover it with whichever nest material you are going to use and when you clean it out just lift the whole lot out.

 

Hope this helps

 

Best wishes

[Olly]

Afraid I don't agree with you, Chucknette, that they will stop doing this when they start laying! Once they are in the habit of sleeping in the nesting-box, it tends to continue - and that's definitely the problem, chickens don't use any particular area of the coop for pooing in, they just do it when they feel like it.

 

You can stop them sleeping in there by putting a plant-pot, football or similar in - you'll need to do this before they go to bed, and then remove it once they have gone to sleep (or get up early in the morning) so they can lay when they are ready.

 

Alternatively, line the nesting-box with a bit of lino or similar (I use a plastic Fleximat from Lakeland) - then it's easy to lift it out, shake it into the compost, run it under the garden tap or whatever, and then put it back in. One of mine sleeps in the nest box every night, I'm just resigned to it now.

[BeckyBoo]

Ditto as above really. But no, you don't need to put anything in nest boxes when they start laying, I do, but then I'm a soft touch, but where I buy my hens and eggs from the hens lay just as well in bare boxes attatched to the sides of the run.

They sound like they are still behaving like babies and once they start laying should start roosting on the bars instead. That said my Bertie sleeps EVERY NIGHT in the nest

 

Mrs B

[dancing cloud]

My lot squabble over who gets to sleep in the nestbox (found 4 of them in it before now ) and I'm far too soft with them to throw them out - well they had such a hard life as battery hens, and they look so snug and so cute, and so ...

 

I fold a sheet of newspaper over the gap and use shredded paper in the nestbox, which does get poo'ed on. When I do the weekly clear-out and clean, it all goes in the compost and seems to rot down pretty quickly.

 

So far, no eggs have been affected, but I'd just give them a rinse if there was a bit of "organic material" attached - I'm not eating the shells

[drliz]

thanks guys!

nice to know my girls are "normal"! I think they may be roosting on the edge of the nest box rather than actually sleeping in it, but hard to be sure because opening the egg port sends them all scuttling - they're still quite shy (unless you're eating fruit cake in the garden, as my husband found out!)

i think i'll do the newspaper lining thing with the shredded bank statements.

And i agree, dancing cloud, the shells aren't for eating and a bit of recycled grass (and ants, slugs, fruit cake etc) doesn't do any harm.

roll on those eggs!!

liz

[Steve.]

I evicted my lot from there .... got a large plastic lid, couple of bamboo canes and some garden wire.

 

Put two holes in the lid. Put the canes in a 'x' pattern in the next box. Put the lid on the roosting bars side, put some garden wire through the holes and blocked the whole things off

[alison]

I evicted all six of mine the last two nights, just to see what happened. Well. there was a lot less poo in the nesting box, only two or three, but when I emptied the poo trays, i couldn't believe how much there was!!

 

I am going to make them move every night now!

 

They are also getting a lots noisier, when I come down in the morning to let them out, they get very excited and make a real racket!

[Gallina]

My six-week old chicks perched properly on the Eglu bars without any training whatsoever, and this was the traumatic night they were taken away from their mother for the first time. If they can do it, any pullet can!

 

The eggs laid at dawn get very mucky if there is poo in the nest box, and you will get very fed up with cleaning it every morning, especially in winter.

 

It is so easy to move the hens when you say goodnight, and it certainly worked in my case.