Part 0800.0005

[groovydad]

Hi,

 

A few days back my chickens moved into a new and bigger chicken house with enlarged run. Now one of my chickens has always insisted on sleeping in a nest reather than a perch but since they moved all of them have made nests on the floor out of sawdust and are each sleeping in their own nest.

 

How do I get them to sleep on their perch's? They are in secure runs so i'm not so worried about predators but with winter coming, I don't want them on the floor. The roost is warm so I don't think they are nest huddled to keep warm, I've used their old perches in the new place and 2 of them used to use them each and every night so i know that's not it.

 

haha...I thought natural instinct was to roost as high as possible so how do I get them back in the habit?

 

Adam

[groovydad]

I should probably add that I have discontinued using the eglu since it was too small for our needs.

[chicken bark]

You could always try lifting them onto the perches for a few nights. I did that for a while with mine then gave up and let them sleep on the floor.

 

Only to discover some time later that after I shut them up for the night they got onto the perches themselves anyway. They seemed to just be waiting until I shut the door.

[Calamity Jane]

'scuse me for being thick but why is it so necessary for them to perch ? My three haven't started laying yet but have always slept in the nest area of their eglu. Should I be trying to prevent this in some way ?

[Blue-DiamondChick07]

'scuse me for being thick but why is it so necessary for them to perch ? My three haven't started laying yet but have always slept in the nest area of their eglu. Should I be trying to prevent this in some way ?

 

Mine always sleep in the nest boxes. Its only the ones who get left out and don't fit in that roost

[The Dogmother]

It stops them from fouling the nestbox, then lying in it. I always block off the nestbox at night - the smallest size of tubtrug fits nicely into the round entrance to the nestbox of my cube. Depending on your set-up you could use an upturned flower pot or a football.

[CallyChook]

out of the 13 young chickens I have in my shed, only two or three choose to perch, the others huddle in a group in the corner. Whether they'll choose to move up in the world later in life I don't know, but they don't seem to be suffering any ill effects from sleeping on the floor.

In my other coop with 4 adult large fowl, all four ignore the perches and snuggle in the nest box or just on the floor. Two of these are orpingtons who apparently are known for disliking perches, the other two just seem to be as contemptful!!

 

the only problem is that the adults poop in the nest box - but I feel that if they want to do this, then that's their choice - I de-poop the coop every morning anyway when I let them out, so for me it isn't an issue.

 

 

When I visitted a local breeder not long ago, he said that since he abolished nest boxes and perches his flocks have been much calmer. He has 1000+ chickens, and said, whether rightly or wrongly, that when all his coops had perches and boxes the pecking order was more fiercely enforced. Since making his own coops which basically are just a roof over a square shed, with no set nest or perch, the feather pecking has stopped and problems with dominance-related bullying have dropped significantly. He says his hens choose to sleep and poop in one corner, and lay in another.

 

I have to admit that his flocks always look peaceful and are less noisy/squalky than other breeders that I have visitted. I've bought two adult chickens from him, a 9 week old, and three day-olds in the past and all have been healthy and beautifully plumed.

[chickencam]

We have given up with ours. In the Eglu we have always had at least one nest box sleeper and we had a hen who laid very early in the morning, so we stopped blocking off the nest box. In the wooden house, we have tried perches at different heights, roosting bars, blocking off nest boxes etc. They mostly choose to sleep in the nest boxes, and they tend to lay early, so we just clean them out daily and accept that sometimes the eggs get a bit grubby. I intend to try some plastic Eglu roosting bars in the winter, when I get round to ording them. We took the homemade wooden ones out when we had our red mite problem. They have a couple of branches in their run which they perch on during the day, but even when they refused to go into their house to sleep because of the red mite they slept in a pile in the corner of the run and not on the perches. I think a lot will depend on what the top chook does, and the others tend to follow.

[kerryegg]

Personally I think it best to let them sleep whereever they choose. One of my 4 always grabs the nest box for the night, I just change the shredded paper each morning to avoid mucky eggs.

[Bexibex]

Mine also tend to sleep in their nest box - top chook at the bottom and the other three piled on top. I have an Eglu Classic and have added a small washing up bowl as well which top chook has now taken over and the others perch on its sides. I scoop out the mess but the girl at the bottom always comes out with mess on her from the ones sitting on top of her!

[Mercedes55]

My 4 ex batts all sleep in the nest in the Cube. I just leave them to it as they obviously prefer to sleep there and I can't see it doing any harm. Mine don't seem to lay until late morning so I make sure I do a poo clean up before any of them goes back in. It also saves me having to clean the perches as they just walk right over them to get to the nest and so far they haven't done one poo on them

[groovydad]

Thanks,

 

I think i'll just leave them too it. I'm sure they'll lay somewhere different to the poopy nests anyway. It's just a little weird how they used to perch but now don't. Guess they're just getting used to their new place.

 

Adam

[Lavenders_Blue]

I'm sure they'll lay somewhere different to the poopy nests anyway.

 

I bet they won't!

 

Mine seem quite happy to poop all over their nests at night time then lay their eggs in said same nests if I'm not quick enough with the poop-a-scooping!

[jackie45]

When I got the first 3 hens , being new to hen-keeping I never realized that they should sleep on the perches.By the time I found this out the harm was done. Charlotte sleeps in the Eglu nest box and Bella and Amber(rip) had the perch. New girls Dotty and Esmeralda were straight into the nest boxes in their chookery and I have decided that going to the bottom of the garden in the dark to turf them out of the boxes would be self defeating as they would get back in. Besides they look so cute .

I must be getting soft.

Jackie

[NatalieC]

My girls have done this on and off and I did get fed up with cleaning out the nesting box every day. Eventually I discovered that they prefer to have nothing in the nesting box (no straw, shredded paper or anything - they just used to drag it out). Now when I put them in at night, I put a plastic plate in the nesting box, which sits fairly low so they can still get in there to lay early in the morning but its also easy to hose down each day.

[sezra]

It stops them from fouling the nestbox, then lying in it. I always block off the nestbox at night - the smallest size of tubtrug fits nicely into the round entrance to the nestbox of my cube. Depending on your set-up you could use an upturned flower pot or a football.

 

That is a brilliant idea! Thank you! Mine have been messing in the nesting box ever since I have had them and unless I clean it out daily the eggs get mucky. I will start using a flower pot from tonight!

[winterwren]

argggg after reading this post thought I would pop my head in to see who is sleeping where this evening and just turfed Maggs outta the nest box. Doh no wonder Amy has been laying in the main hut the last few days

[C&T]

We found putting a flower pot on the nesting box before they go to bed, wait for them to settle, and then remove the pot before we go to bed. They don't seem to move around once they have settled, and the nest box is clear for the early morning egg layers.

[Weathercoc]

My hens have always slept in the nestbox of the cube, but this has concerned me, and of course means daily cleaning of the nestbox.

As i would like to introduce a new hen or two next year, I'd already tried to persuade them to sleep in the roost by blocking the nestbox entrance with an inflatable ball, of course they pushed this out the way and slept one on top of the other in a pile!

I hadn't thought of the obvious solution (until reading the forum) so I've waited until they've settled for the night, and then moved them through into the roost area. I'll check again before I go to bed, but I think a few days and they might get the idea. Here's hoping..

[Margaret]

Mine always roosted at night, until that is the arrived..

Now every night I spend at least 30 minutes ( and last night it was pouring) pushing them through the hole back onto the roosting bars.

I think I need Super Nanny first time I talk nicely to them.

Shut the door and listen to them mooving around, normally takes about 20 seconds for them to all get back in the nest

next time tell them off they mutter but moove, I close the door stand a few minutes open door and off we go again

Dont have time to clean nest in mornig before work so we now have a stand off and I will win.

Cant use the flower pot method as i leave before they wake up and dont like to disturb them, also I might forget.

Oh well. Super Nanny I need your help