4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[jomaxsmith]

Since the clocks went back I've been closing the Eglu door at night and one of the hens has decided to sleep in the nestbox.

 

Last week I got fed up of scooping up handfuls of pooey easibed every morning and put a large plastic flowerpot in the nest at night.

 

This has worked pretty well and I'm wasting a lot less bedding.

 

However, one of the hens likes to lay as soon as she wakes up - it must be before it gets light and she's a bit put out. One day she'd squeezed round the pot to lay. This morning there was an egg on the bars (cracked) and one in the nest next to the pot so one hen had kicked the first egg out. I also found an eggshell in the run so i think an egg got kicked out, broken and eaten.

 

Egg production also seems a little down on 'before the pot'.

 

I don't know whether to persevere and see more wastage of eggs or to give up and go back to bleary eyed poo picking and mucky eggs!

 

Jo

[Olly]

In theory, if you put the flowerpot in before they go to bed, you can remove it after they are asleep, and they should stay roosting on the bars where they are and not move over.

 

We all know the difference between theory and reality ... but it might be worth a try? I can't use the flowerpot method as when I leave for work in the morning they haven't finished laying, and by the time I get home they are all in bed so I never get a chance to put it in there.

[jomaxsmith]

In theory, if you put the flowerpot in before they go to bed, you can remove it after they are asleep, and they should stay roosting on the bars where they are and not move over.

 

I might try that - but they are never in the nest box when I shut the Eglu up as soon as it's gone dark so they were obviously moving into it after I'd gone.

 

There were loads of feathers in the Eglu this morning so I just hope the flowerpot isn't causing stress and bullying. They are all slowly moulting so it could be coincidence.

 

Jo