Roosting?

[Snadger]

I've finally got my three chooks to roost in my new chook house by blocking off the nesting boxes so they can't sleep and poop in them. When I checked they were all huddled together on a single nesting bar even though there are two roosting bars in coop. This will give them a bit of natural body heat from each other, even thogh the coop is warm and dry. The coop is within another hut on the end of the greenhouse.

How long do you reckon before I can re-open the nestboxes to them without them reverting to old habits?

[frias]

How long's a piece of string? When one of my girls decide to sleep in the nest box they usually try it for about 3 nights running with me turfing them off each night until they get the message. Then it's usually a few weeks/months later until a different hen decides she'll try it on. It's easy for me to check of course as they are in my garden.

[steve'n'sal]

Our Leghorns roost in the tree, problem is the clumsy marans sometimes manage to follow them up there. In the morning the Leghorns fly the length of the garden landing with grace. The marans however fly about 10ft and generally have a bumpy landing. Even though we provide a nice clean shed for them to sleep they don't want to know. Chickens can be stubborn creatures