I know that Gayle is with me on this one, because she has been struggling for ages to get her chickens to stay in the right coop. Somehow they keep escaping. Let me tell you: it is humiliating to be outsmarted by an animal with a brain the size of a lentil.
My chickens have come to believe that they should sleep atop the nest box*. I believe otherwise.
Here is the thing: chickens poop all night in their sleep. If their butts aren’t hanging out over a ledge, they will poop all over their feet, and then sleep like that, with poop all over their feet, all night long.
I personally do not feel that this is acceptable. It’s unhygienic, and probably bad for their skin. Wouldn’t you think?
I guess they really DON’T like the carrot bits.
“Just put something on top of the nest box,” everyone cheerfully advises. Easier said than done. It’s in a weird space, so it’s hard to wedge things up there. Plus, the chickens are very determined.
Martha (blonde) and Harriet (red) have pretty much given up, and sleep on their perch. But Dolly (black) is persistent. Basically what is happening is, I put something up there, it’s fine for a few days, then Dolly figures out a way to wriggle her way up there again.
So far we are up to: an empty black plastic 1-gallon plant pot, a two-foot length of plastic bird spikes, and an empty 1-gallon water jug. The water jug is the latest addition. Here’s hoping it does the trick!
* The nest box is one of many things I would change if I could do it all over again. I cut a hole in the side of a big plastic storage container and set it inside. Next time I would just build a cubby into the side of the coop, so that there was nowhere to stand atop.
They put those spikes in the covered doorway/nooks in the dorms to keep the birds from nesting there, and it is one of the creepiest things I’ve ever seen. They look like someone tried to add clear gothic spikes to the colonial-style doorway. Defend the castle!
But that little lentil brain thinks of nothing else but getting on the box! And eating of course. But not carrots.
From personal experience I can tell you that there is NOTHING more determined than a chicken – particularly when it’s determined to do something you don’t want it to. You could put Godzilla on top of the nestbox, and they’d *still* figure out a way to sleep up there…
Poor Dolly. Driven from the one place she can rest. And keep her feet warm.
Mine poop in their nesting boxes. I think two sleep actually in the nests, and two sleep on the perching rod. I just change their ‘linens’ every few days. The bunny eats the nest hay, and poops there too. So far, nobody seems to have suffered any damage.
I have the best compost in the world, too.
Over the last couple of months, 5 of my girls have decided they want to sleep in the nest boxes. They cram themselves 2 and 3 to a box. I can’t figure out why, since they always slept on a roost bar. I have no idea why they decided this wasn’t ok any more.
Lemme tell ya…. I hate,hate,hate poop in the nest boxes. I just don’t want to have to clean them out every day. I so wish I could figure out a way to get them to stop this. Does anybody know why they do this?
Chickens like to roost in high places. If the nesting box is much lower than the roost, they will be more apt to choose the roost. You have to bend down to get eggs but they’re cleaner.