Part 0800.0005

[gary.fox]

My tub trugs are doing more important garden work, and I’ve always got bits of wood about the place!

[The Dogmother]

These trugs are far too small for anything useful, apart from this role.

[Luvachicken]

Looks like a good idea but one of mine, sadly no longer here, would have definitely used that as a perch and then pooped on the others at the same time 

[The Dogmother]

I used to have a hen who could flap up over the partition, so there's a chicken wire 'screen' wired onto the top of mine.

[mullethunter]

2 of my 3 Dutch bantams sleep roosting on the partition 

[The Dogmother]

Little Dutchies have a great wingspan to weight ratio - I had one which was nicknamed Boeing as eh was a brilliant flyer!

[Luvachicken]

Just now, mullethunter said:

2 of my 3 Dutch bantams sleep roosting on the partition 

That's where Lily used to go.

Goodness knows how she fitted there because she was a big girl, even for a Pekin.

[Chicken_Daddy]

On 4/17/2009 at 4:28 AM, attenbhp said:

I had this problem.

I rigged up an internal door made from an old plastic chopping board.

This pivots on a screw, and I raise and lower it with a bit of string through one of the ventilation holes.

It works really well.

I close it in the afternoon, after they've finished laying, then raise it sometime after dark.

If I forget to raise it, the chickens jump over the top of the partition, lay, and jump out again. Clearly the urge to lay an egg in the nest box is stronger than the urge to sleep in it.

This sounds like a really good idea!  I think I will give it a try.  I see that you posted this over 10 years ago. Are you still using this method, or have you found a better solution?

[Peter]

I have only had poo in the neat box once. I am very lucky or it is because I made the perch 2in wide and well above the height of the nest boxes.

Peter