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

[jmcq555]

Hi

 

When we first got our young hens, we were told to block off the nesting box and to make sure that they slept roosting on the perches. The hens seem to like huddling together in the corner and I think they sleep like that and I wondered whether it really mattered. (They were quite nervy initially and wouldn't be picked up so I left them to it.)

Now 2 of them are laying and we have unblocked the nesting boxes and I think they are sleeping in there as there are a lot of droppings in there on the straw, rather than in the coop bit on sawdust. This is more difficult to clean.

 

My questions are

Does it matter if they sleep roosting on the perch or sitting down?

How can I stop them sleeping in the nesting box, and therefore keep it cleaner?

 

We have a wooden coop and I've noticed from pics of the eglu that there is little space inbetween the perches - ours leaves lots of space so they are not forced onto a perch. Should I build a better perch with the bars closer together?

 

Any advice gratefully received.

Janet

[Ain't Nobody Here]

It really doesn't matter where they sleep but it can be annoying having to clear poo out of the nestbox every morning . You can put a football or flowerpot in the nestbox, if you can be bothered (make sure you remove it in the morning ) but you may find they change their habits anyway. Mine used to sleep in the nestbox but don't now.

 

I'm sure your perch is fine - as long as they've got something to perch on I don't think the gap matters too much .

[Porkypie]

I have a wooden house and when I first got my chickens would go out every night (at least two or three times) to keep popping them back on a perch. This went on for a month and I have to admit I made no progress and just seemed to stress them out so I reluntantly gave up I tried out a range of perches and although they happily perch on them in the pen they refused to perch to sleep. I did have more sucess in preventing them sleeping the nest box by using upturned flowerpots. Did this for a week and it broke their 'habbit'. One of them still goes in their occasionally but I just start using the flowerpot trick and that seems to sort her out for a while. As ANH says though, must remove flowerpots before their egg laying time!

[Plum]

As above I keep moving one of mine out of nestbox. Don't think it matters unless they start losing feathers underneath from irritation with the bedding or overheating.