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

[Cluckinmad]

Hello All,

 

Yet another question before purchasing my chickens I had read various books but theres no advice like the advice you get from real live people .

 

Everynight when I go to close up the pen it seems all my chickens are trying to snuggle up in the same nesting box. I have read somewhere that they should nest alone is this true?

 

Hope this isn't such a silly question.

[Chook n Boo Mum]

The only one of my big girls who nests totally alone is Hazel in because everyone else piles into the & sleeps in a bundle, her battie sisters have decided that sleepovers with the other girls is the way to go at the mo........the bantams all sleep apart in their with Clover on the dividing wall between the nestbox & the roosting bars & the other girls in a row against the back wall .....the babies bantams in the snuggle together but they are very wee and the Bufflings sleep touching each other in the but not in a heap like the big girls...........lonesome sleeping seems to be a choice rather than the norm in our houses

 

Sha x

[sjp]

the 'books' say allow 1 foot of perch per bird only trouble with that is my girls haven't read the 'books' and sleep 3 to the foot if it's a cold night I had 3 sleep in a roll away nest box one night no long after i got them that was only 10 inch square

[jlo]

At the risk of hijacking the thread, I would like a little advice in relation to this.

 

Since the two new girls arrived in April, they have slept in and the old girls in . As of today, they have a fenced in run area so went to bed as they wished.

 

When I went to tuck them in, three were in the , leaving alone in the . I didn't want her to be alone and shoved back in with her. She seemed happy enough.

 

However, I am wondering whether I should just let them go where they want or whether, if anything, I should put them all in the same one and get them used to that so that I can use one of the eglus for introductions in the future? Any thoughts??

 

Sorry again for the hijack!

 

edited to add: I wonder whether this thread could be moved to chickens rather than chicken clinic?? It may just get a few more views.

[Chook n Boo Mum]

Hi jlo, I let my girls make their own decisions and sometime I have one chook, Hazel, in the all on her lonesome and 9 snuggled up in the , sometimes all the batties are in the with 7 in the ...before the batties were fully integrated, ie not at night, I often found Snowdrop on her own with Buttercup & Bluebell having a sleepover with the Orpies.....I think sometimes they just like their own space...mind you if they didn't have the choice they'd have to sleep together as was proven when I'd shut the door to prevent Buffie from returning there to the nestbox rather than her eggs & forgotten to re-open it .... all the girls bunked up in the

 

Sha x

[Cluckinmad]

Thank you all for the info it seems everyone's chickens have there own kind of thing. Again all 5 of my girls have decided to cuddle up in one nesting box again tonight.

 

One more silly question will them sleeping all snuggled up together effect there laying of eggs??

 

Thanks