Unsecure chicken perches

[Janina Butterworth]

Probably being paranoid yet again but does anyone else girls sit a lot and look like they are sleeping in their runs?

 

Do I need to do something else bar the usual to entertain them?

 

Also when one of my girls goes to bed she sleeps in the nest box is that normal too?

 

PS No eggs yet, no sign of an attempt of going on the nest box during the day!

[C&T]

Ours roost in their run at times throughout the day, on a perch they have in there.

 

Often they have a siesta mid afternoon, and at the moment they have a morning snooze as well - I guess long days and short nights makes for sleepy chooks at the moment? As long as they are happy and busy the rest of the time, I am sure they are fine.

 

Sleeping in the nest box is "normal" although you may want to discourage it, as when they start laying, you may have pooey eggs. A plant pot in the nest box before they go to bed will ruin her plans!! Others are happy to let the chicken sleep in the nest box, and put up with pooey eggs!

[Janina Butterworth]

Thanks for the advice, we were thinking of using the plant pot trick so now I think we will.

 

Good to be reassured about sleepy chickens, they are active the rest of the time so I'm not going to worry any more.

[Mercedes55]

Mine seem to sit and also sleep in the run or go back in the coop for a siesta. I put it down to the hot weather, although it's cooler today and they are still doing it. However I think it's a very valid point that at this time of year when they are awake for so long that they are bound to get tired

[Lavenders_Blue]

All quite normal. Mine like a siesta in the daytime and they like to sleep in the nestbox at night.

 

They can sometimes be found during the day squashed up together with their heads tucked behind their wings, snoozing away

[docsquid]

Yes, ours tend to take a siesta in the afternoon too - snoozing away, usually in a nice hole they've dug themselves in the garden. They also tend to snooze a bit after I've put them in the run but before they make their dignified procession up the cube steps and into the hen house.

 

One of them, Blodwyn, has gone off lay in the last few days, and was off-colour on Saturday, although there isn't anything specific up with her (no mites, lice, parasites, wormed 4 weeks ago, cube scrubbed a week ago, crop feels normal in morning and evening, eating well, drinking well). She's back to normal now (being the top chook) apart from the laying. I think the hot weather has got to her a bit. The other two are laying well, and all three are behaving more or less the same with their afternoon siesta.

 

I'd say there isn't much to worry about.

[Bertrum]

I do hope we calm down soon.

I think we are OK with the sleeping during the day now; they preen and eat and scratch when they are not snoozing so that is OK.

We tried the plant pot in the nest box, but I think we are just too jittery to let that work. It caused quite a stir and Ariadne, who has been going to bed in the nest box at about 8:30 refused to go to bed. Petunia has been staying out until 9:30 before following Ariadne to bed. She was coming in and out of the Eglu all confused. Ariadne finally went in at 10, but then Petunia started shouting outside in the run as if she were disturbed by something (looking furtively into a nearby bush). First time we have heard any noise from her at all.

Anyway, since we are still feeling very shaky and new to all this, we caved in a took the plant pot back out again; they waited another half hour and finally both went in at 10:30, Ariadne on the nest box and Petunia on the roost bars as usual (if you can have usual after only 3 days). Our reward was the hugest poo in the nest this morning.

Can someone take them away, teach then the rules, then bring them back when they are trained please?

[jennydavies]

When Blanche Part Deux decided to sleep in one of the nesting boxes, I just turfed her out and put her on one of the roosting bars - she didn't go into the nestbox at night anymore, only during the day to lay. Ours snooze during the day quite often, our tempertures are well over 100 degrees here every day so we supply plenty of shade and water. I give very watery treats like tomato, cucumber, melon etc. and remember to try your best to keep their water containers in the shade - "Ooops, word censored!"ody likes warm water to drink in the hot weather I add ice cubes to the drinker as well.

[C&T]

Can someone take them away, teach then the rules, then bring them back when they are trained please?

 

 

 

The other option to to lift them from the nest box and onto the bars after then have gone to sleep, through the egg port. Our Fred always goes to sleep in the nest box - but each night when I say goodnight, I gently stroke her back and she now gets up and moves onto the bars herself, muttering and hoping that one night I'll forget!!

[Janina Butterworth]

Think I might be brave and try moving her tonight onto the roosting bars from the nest box. Just a bit apprehensive about doing this as we haven't handled her yet and we don't want to un-nerve her again. Don't want her shouting and flapping out of the eglu which scares the life out of me!!

[bridgy chooks]

Hopefully she won't flap if you do it when it's quite dark as they normally stay quite still at night time. What I sometimes do is pick them up and let them perch on my arm and then gently ease their feet off my arm and onto the bars. Not sure if you are meant to do this but it works. I've found that they like the security of having their feet clinging to something when it's dark.

 

(I am having issues with the fact that my existing chicken won't settle with our 2 new girls in the eglu at night and we have a lot of commotion going on so I can sympathise on this one!)