How do you prevent chickens from sleeping in nest boxes? (2024)

Chickens instinctively love to roost! This is why good chicken coops are an integral part of chicken coop design. However, sometimes our feathered friends don't quite get the memo and decide to sleep in their nest boxes instead. This leads to a wide range of problems, such as dirty eggs, overcrowded nest boxes and more. To break this habit and prevent your chickens from sleeping in their nest boxes, here are reasons and suggestions to encourage your feathered friends to return to their roosts.

Leaning and laying are instinctive for chickens

Chickens naturally exhibit this behavior every day at dusk. They seek out a safe, high place to sleep at night so that they feel safe while they sleep.Roasting barsIn your chicken coop, you will need to provide seating above the chicken coop floor. These provide a feeling of security and prevent your chickens from sleeping in dirty litter.

Just as chickens feel compelled to find a safe place to sleep, they are also naturally drawn to lay their eggs under special circ*mstances.Nest boxes are the ideal environment for this.

The problem with chickens sleeping in nest boxes

Nest boxes are a safe, dark place for chickens to lay their eggs, not to sleep in. But who cares if your chickens decide to catch some Z's in those boxes?

The problem occurs when chickens start sleeping in the nest boxes instead of in the designated places in the coop. It is a bad habit to let your chickens sit in the nest boxes. This must be prevented and remedied as quickly as possible.

Nest box sleeping can lead to:

Dirty nests

Chickens bake a lot at night. If these droppings accumulate in the nest boxes, it can create messy nest box waste that will need to be cleaned up every day.

Dirty eggs

If the nest box waste is not cleared away daily, or if eggs are left in the nests overnight, you will have to deal with messy, dirty and smelly eggs.

Cracked eggs

Eggs that are not collected regularly, laid later in the day or early in the morning, are more likely to break, especially if left in the crates overnight. Cracked eggs are possiblelead to eating eggs.

Suffocating

Sometimes multiple chickens will crawl into the same nest box to roost, which can cause them to suffocate each other or overheat in hot weather.

5 reasons why chickens should sleep in nest boxes

The bad habit of staying in the nest boxes can not only cause management problems, but can also indicate a health problem or disorder. Investigating why your chickens are staying in the nest boxes is important to properly manage them and keep them healthy.

#1. Mites

Mitesare nasty external parasites that feed on a chicken's feathers, skin and blood. These small poultry pests can wreak havoc on the overall well-being of your flock.

Northern poultry mites and red mites can live both on and next to chickens, meaning they can live in the cracks and crevices of roosts and the chicken coop. Mites can be so bothersome and painful to your chickens that they refuse to sleep in their roost at night. This allows them to nest in the nest boxes. However, the mites will likely take up residence in the nest boxes as well, making it virtually impossible for your chicks to find relief.

Check for mites

You can check for mites in your chickens and in the garden. To check for mites on the chicks, pick up each chick and examine the feathers and skin around the vent. Look for small crawling insects, mite egg masses at the base of the feather shaft, or bloody bites on the skin.

To check for mites in the garden, thoroughly examine your hands and the surrounding area, including any cracks and crevices that could provide a hiding place for the mites. Use a plastic knife or sharp knife to poke into cracks and crevices. If there is blood on the knife or blade, you know you have pinched pesky mites.

What to do if you notice mites

If you notice that your flock is actually suffering from mites, you will want to get rid of themtreat the mitesas quickly as possible. When treating mites, both the chickens and the coop are treated, as the mites live on and next to the birds.

#2. Injuries & illness

Illness or injury can also cause chickens to roost in nest boxes.

Foot and leg injuries

Foot and leg injuries can make it extremely difficult for a chicken to get to roosts. If a chicken hurts its leg, it is much easier for it to sleep in places like the nest boxes.

Check for leg and foot injuries

Perform regular health checks on your flock and examine their feet and paws for ailments such as club feet, abrasions or splinters. During the winter, frostbite can affect a chicken's toes, making it painful to roost. Make sure you take proper precautions during the winterprevent frostbite of toes, ridges and ridges!

Wing damage

Wing damage can also make it difficult for chickens to fly on their hands. With a regular health check, you can also examine each chicken's wing to ensure there is no damage. You can also prevent wing damage by ensuring that there is enough space in the hens so that the hens can fly down from the living rooms and nest boxes without colliding with anything.

Disease

Sick chicks are less likely to expend the energy needed to fly to roosts. A sick chick may try to hide in the nest boxes during the day to hide its weakness from the rest of the flock.

A sick chicken can:

• Be boring
• Stand bent over with ruffled feathers
• Has shriveled and pale comb and wattles

What to do with a sick or injured chicken?

If one of your chicks is sick or injured, move her to an infirmary away from the rest of the flock so she can heal and recover.

#3. A design Coop

Cold drafts blowing into the roosting area of ​​the coop can make your chickens unwilling to sleep there. Drafts are more of a problem if you live in northern regions and during the cold winter months.

Prevention of drafts

To prevent drafts from blowing onto the hands in the garden, you should avoid windows facing the hands or directly at the level of the hands. You can also check for any cracks or holes in the coop around the bedding area that could allow cold winds to blow on the chickens.

Remember that while you want your chicken coop to be draft-free, you also want good ventilation. Having small windows near the roof of the coop, but above the living rooms, is a good way to achieve ventilation without creating drafts on or near the living rooms.

#4. The age, size and breed of your chickens

A chicken's age and breed can play a role in its bad habit of roosting in nest boxes. Older chickens and larger chicken breeds may have difficulty nesting high above the ground.

What to do For chicks that like to sleep in the nest box

If you have a mixed flock of chickens of different ages and breeds, make sure you provide a variety of roosting options so that each bird feels comfortable and has access to a good place to sleep at night.

Provide sleeping areas that are at different heights, such as a ladder or bar hut at different heights above the farm floor. Shorter hens will be attractive to older chickens and larger breed chickens such as Orpingtons and Cochins. Ideally, heavier chicken breeds should use racks that are about 2 to 3 feet above the ground to prevent leg injuries and bunions.

You can also build a ramp or stairs so that older chickens can get onto the chickens without flying.

Silkies and crested chickens have a harder time flying onto chickens because of their unique feathers. Providing low slats or ramps leading to slats can help prevent them from roosting in the nest boxes.

#5. In Pest

Bullied chicks look for a safe, dark place to hide from the rest of the flock. The nest boxes provide the perfect place. Chickens that are bullied will also be denied access to regular roosts, causing them to seek other roosts and spend the night.

What causes bullying in the pack?

Bullying usually occurs when new chicks are integrated into the flock too quickly, or if you have a dominant hen with a bullying attitude. Bullying can also occur if the chickens are bored or if there are not enough sheds and sheds for everyone.

How to prevent bullying

Proper integration of new chicks can do wonders for flock dynamics. To do this:

• Ensure there is sufficient cage and stable space for everyone
• Keep your flock stimulated (mentally and physically)
• Separate any chickens that tend to bully other chickens

Once the bullying has stopped, the bullied chicken may need some encouragement to go back to sleeping in the right place.

How to make chickens sleep in chicken coops

These tips to prevent chickens from roosting in nest boxes can be used both to prevent the habit and to break the habit of staying in the nest boxes.

#1. Block the nest boxes

One of the easiest ways to prevent chickens from sleeping in nest boxes is to lock the boxes every night. Depending on how the nest boxes are set up, you can use a large board, cut-to-size cardboard, or homemade chicken wire screens to shield the nest boxes in the coop.

Chickens usually lay their eggs in the morning and early afternoon. So by closing the nest boxes late in the afternoon or early evening, you can prevent your chickens from accessing the nest boxes when they are resting. In the morning you can clear the nest boxes so that the hens have access to them to lay their eggs.

Other benefits of blocking nest boxes

When introducing it is also a good idea to close the nest boxesyoung chickensto their new chicken coop.

Moving to a new coop can be stressful and the chickens may be looking for a dark, safe place to hide and lay. During this time the nest boxes look particularly attractive! By closing the nest boxes, your chickens are more likely to learn the right roosting places for the night.
If the hens are not yet legal, you can also leave the nest boxes locked during the day to help train them. When they reach laying age (usually around 20 to 24 weeks old), you'll want to unblock the nest boxes during the day to encourage them to lay their eggs in the boxes.

#2. Ensure the correct lying height

be sure thatthe chickens in your house are of suitable material and heightto encourage your chickens to sleep on it at night.

Hanging height

Chickens instinctively like to sleep high up, so they will seek out the highest spot in the garden they can reach. Thatthe hens in the coop must always be higher than the nest boxesto appeal to a chicken's natural tendency to sleep noisily.

Roost materials

The sleeping places should also be made of good materials, such as branches or sanded planks, so that the rest is comfortable and safe for your flock. Ideally, slats that are narrow and about 2 inches wide provide a comfortable and stable place for chickens to roost.

Proper sleeping arrangements should:

• Be smoother around the edges to avoid cuts or scrapes
• Provides grip without being smooth or round
• Be stable or safe

Roosterplads

You also want to make sure you have enough sleeping space for the number of birds in the coop. If there is not enough space in the living rooms, some birds may go to sleep in the nest boxes.

Make sure there is 8" to 12" grid space per chicken piece. Also make sure there is enough room for your chickens to fly up and down between them without bumping into anything else in the coop.

Stalls that are high, easily accessible, sturdy and stable will appeal to your flock.

#3. Perform proper Roost training

Training your flock from the beginning is the best way to prevent chickens from sleeping in the nest boxes. Perch training involves teaching young birds from an early age where they can sleep at night.

How to train your chickens to roost

When introducing young birds to a new chicken, teach them where to sleep at night, as a mother chicken naturally does. You may have to place each young chick on the chickens in the garden every night. Eventually they will realize it and start sleeping on their own at night.

This rest training can also be accompanied by blocking the nest boxes if the young hens have not yet reached laying age.

If you are introducing new birds to an existing flock, the other members of the flock should help teach the newcomers where to roost at night. However, bullying can cause new chickens not to roost on the regular chickens, and to hide and sleep in the nesting boxes.

Follow proper integration methods to avoid bullying new pack members!

A mother hen will also teach her young chicks when and where to sleep at night if given the chance.

#4. Encourages broody chickens to go to sleep

A brooding chicken does not seek out nest boxes as a resting place. Instead, she sits on a cluster of eggs to hatch them. However, because she is broody, she must spend most of her time in the nest boxInalso sleep in the nest box.

There are some otherstelltale signs of crueltyif you are unsure whether your chicken has hatched. For broody chickens where you do not want the chicken to hatch eggs, discourage the chicken from breeding.

If you want her to hatch eggs, it's a good idea to move her to a separate brooding area, where she won't take up nest box space and won't be disturbed by other chickens.

Is it okay for chickens to sleep on the floor or on the floor in the coop?

Letting your chickens sleep in the nest boxes is a bad idea, but what if one or two chickens start sleeping on the floor of the garden? If they don't have access to the nest boxes and the roosts are still unappealing to them, some chickens may start sleeping on the floor of the coop.

What to do if your chickens sleep on the ground?

First you need to assess why your chickens have changed their sleeping habits. The same factors that cause chicks to roost in the nest boxes can also prevent them from roosting at all. These factors include

• Parasites
• Incorrect armchairs
• In Pest
• Disease
• Injury

As long as there is nothing wrong with the chicken or the chicken coop's sleeping area, it is fine to sleep on the floor in the chicken coop. One thing you don't want is your chickens sleeping outside the coop, where they are vulnerable to predators and bad weather.

Give your flock a good night's sleep

Every home should have ample roosting facilities and suitable nesting boxes to keep your flock happy, healthy and well rested! Additionally, you can prevent your chickens from roosting in the nesting boxes by ensuring they remain parasite-free and have enough space. Remember to check your flock regularly for injuries or ailments, and don't forget to train young chickens properly from the start.

Once your flock knows where to sleep at night, chores in the morning will be much easier and your chickens will happily participate in their instinctive sleeping habits.