Pooping in the nest box

[Graham K]

Hi all,

my two girls have recently taken to pooping in one of their two nest boxes, always the same one, and they always lay their eggs in the other so no "dirty" eggs (usually), as far as I know they are roosting on the perch and not sleeping in the nest box but I will check again.

They are still in the same house they have always been in so nothing new to get used to , although I did move the house to another part of the garden at the beginning of the summer.

Should I;

a. Leave them to it and keep cleaning out the box.
b. Shut the nest box down for a while and hope they get out of the habit.
c. Other!!!!!

As always any advice welcome.

Graham.

[Glutton4...]

If you can be bothered to take them out the nest-box and put them on the perch each evening, then go for it - it should only take a week of being moved and they'll give up. I've had the same issue, but usually only when over-stocked, or with the perches too low. A couple of my current young'uns perch on the front of the boxes, tails out, instead of sitting in them.

The other method is to hang plastic streamers over the front of the nest-box, blocking them off, but still allowing them to go in to lay. That also worked to keep egg-eaters out, too. Good luck.

Also, you need to get two more Chooks. If one of your girls 'pops off' the other will be lonely!

[Feral007]

I dont have any help sorry, but I'm excited that the last of my batties has come out of the nest boxes and started perching. The batt's look very untidy on the perch, but they stay there.

[Bill HH]

It might be that something scared them when they were perching, a rat maybe. It gets dark so early at the moment so you could pop in to see where they are after dark, and move them if needed.

[RichmondHens]

Sounds like at least one hen is going into the nestboxes after you leave them for the night. I would block off the nestboxes overnight (a stiff square of cardboard cut to fit should suffice) and remove each morning when you let them out. Sleeping in nestboxes is a bad habit and should be discouraged.

I have a few lazy hens that will go into the nestboxes at night given half a chance - Orpingtons are particularly bad - and now most have stopped laying I have blocked almost all the nestboxes up for the whole winter so they don't have access day or night. Once they look like coming back into lay again I shall reopen them.

[Bill HH]

Of course the other possibility is that one of them is broody, I dont know what the modern thinking is on this but we used to chuck them in a broody ark without food and water for a few days, I seem to remember this induced a malt.

[Ja9]

Hi, I have exactly the same problem. I think that one of my girls is a bit of a bully and 2 hens hide from her, but aren't terribly clean! I have been stopping them by blocking them off every night, or moving them out if I get back from work after they have gone to bed. Unfortunately they are not taking the hint,it's been a couple of months now.Hope you have better luck Graham K!