How to Stop Chickens Sleeping in Nesting Boxes
Are your chickens sleeping in nesting boxes? If so, you’re not alone.
This spring our new flock of chicks developed a bad habit: they started sleeping in the nesting boxes. During the day, they loved to jump up in there for a nap, and when I’d go out to the coop to close everything up at night I’d find them all crowded in the boxes like happy sardines while the adults were snoozing on the roost.
Although this was cute and cozy for the pullets, it was a bad habit that I needed to stop.
If your chickens are like mine and are sleeping in the nesting boxes, you need to curb this asap. It’s far easier to break this bad habit as soon as it starts on than to let it become ingrained behavior. And, nest box sleeping can lead to a whole host of problems you don’t want to have to deal with.
Why Chickens Shouldn’t Sleep In Nesting Boxes
So, why is it so bad if chickens sleep in their nesting boxes? In short, nest box sleeping starts a chain reaction of negative events that leads to more work on your part. It can also damage your flock’s egg laying ability, and cause other bad habits in your birds.
1. Nest Box Sleeping is Dirty
Chickens poop a lot when they sleep. I mean, A LOT. Experienced chicken keepers know the dirtiest spot in the coop is directly under the roost where the chickens (are supposed to) sleep at night. When chickens sleep in the nesting boxes, they quickly contaminate it with poop every night.
Nesting boxes need to stay clean, and eggs get contaminated by bacteria when they sit in a dirty box. Dirty eggs must be washed, which means the protective bloom is washed off as well. And, washed eggs don’t stay as fresh as unwashed eggs.
You’ll have to clean all these dirty nesting boxes daily. And chances are, you can think of plenty of other things you’d rather be doing than cleaning poop out of a nesting box.
2. Nest Box Sleeping Can Be Expensive
Every time you clean out that poop from the nesting box, you’re going to have to throw away the bedding and replace it with fresh, clean bedding. If you use nest box liners, this is going to get expensive very fast. Even if you use hay or pine shavings, daily cleaning will use up more of these resources and add to your expenses.
3. Chicks Can Smoother In a Nest Box
When young chicks join a flock they often head straight to the nesting boxes. Why? Because nesting boxes are enclosed, they’re warm, and they’re cozy. Young chicks feel protected in the nesting boxes, so it’s natural they want to sleep there. However, this can turn into a dangerous situation.
When young chicks pile up together in a nesting box to sleep, a small, weak, or sick chick can easily get smothered or crushed by the others.
4. Nest Box Sleeping Can Cause Egg Eating
Chicks or chickens that sleep in the nesting boxes can start eating eggs. And egg eating is definitely a bad habit that you don’t want to spread in your flock.
Here’s what happens. During the day, the adult hens will be in and out of the nesting boxes laying eggs. Well, your nest box sleeper might decide to hop in there to take an afternoon snooze. So she goes in and accidentally breaks an egg. She takes a little taste to see what it is, and it’s all over. When many hens taste the delicious flavor of raw egg, they become habitual egg eaters. And, egg eating can spread throughout your entire flock if you’re not careful.
5. Nest Box Sleeping Can Disrupt Laying
Letting chickens sleep in the nesting boxes can disrupt the other adults’ ability to lay eggs. This is what happened in my flock.
I let my chickens free range, and during the day the adults would be out foraging and the chicks would sneak back into the coop for a little siesta. Throughout the day, the hens would meander back to the coop to lay, only to find the nesting boxes filled with snoozing chicks.
Instead of running them out, most of the hens decided to find a new place to lay. I went from getting 10 eggs a day to 2 or 3 eggs a day. So, you can see how nest box sleeping can really disrupt egg production.
Note: Make sure you don’t confuse a chicken sleeping in a nesting box with normal broody behavior. If you have a broody hen, you should allow her to sleep on the nest as long as it’s safe and you don’t mind her there.
How to Stop Nest Box Sleeping
There are a few ways you can stop your chickens from sleeping in the nesting boxes and get them back on the roost where they belong.
1. Close Off the Nesting Boxes
One strategy is to close off the nesting boxes as soon as your hens are done laying for the day. How you do this depends on the type of nesting boxes you use. However, blocking the entrance with anything bulky will work.
We use several different types of nesting boxes in our coop. I ended up using pieces of scrap wood to block off the nesting boxes so the chicks couldn’t get in. However, you could also cut out pieces of cardboard to block the entrance.
Lisa at Fresh Eggs Daily ended up using chicken wire to keep her chickens from sleeping in the nesting boxes. First, trim the chicken wire so that it will cover the entrances of your nesting boxes. She then recommends putting flat head nails into each of the four corners of your row of boxes, and then attaching the chicken wire to the nails. You can easily put up the chicken wire in the afternoons when everyone is done laying, and then take it off first thing in the morning.
2. Train Chicks to Sleep on the Roost
If you have chicks sleeping in nesting boxes, you might need to train them not do this. Chickens need to sleep on a roost. It’s safer for them, and it helps keep the waste in one easy-to-clean area.
First, make sure you have an appropriate roost for your chicks. The chick roost should be at a lower height than the adult roost. Giving the chicks their own roost will help the chicks join the flock with minimal bullying and aggressiveness from the adults. Having their own roost will also increase the odds that the chicks will actually use it.
To train your chicks to sleep on the roost, go into the coop in the evening after everyone is shut in from the night. Remove the chicks from the nesting boxes, and put them on their roost. It’s as simple as that. Hopefully, in a few days the chicks will decide that sleeping on the roost is what the cool kids are doing, and they’ll follow the herd.
3. Provide Several Different Perches
You can also try putting up several perches at different heights and in different locations around the coop. This will ensure that everyone can find a perfect spot to roost, and make the nesting boxes a bit less tempting. You should have at least 12 inches of perch for each bird in your flock, and more is always better.
It’s also important that the perches are comfortable. If your perches are too wide, too narrow, or have splinters or sharp edges, your birds won’t want to roost there. Make sure that perches are at least 2 inches wide, and flat (versus round like a branch). Flat perches are more comfortable for chickens and better for them in cold temperatures.
4. Make Sure You Don’t Have Mites
You also need to make sure that your coop doesn’t have mites. Chicken mites come out at night, especially along the perches, and bite chickens. If you have several chickens that aren’t sleeping on the perch, you could have a mite problem.
To check for mites, go into the coop at night with a flashlight and a piece of white paper or tissue. Rub the paper along the underside of the perch. If you see red smears, you have mites. You might also be able to see the mites walking along the perch.
Unfortunately, chicken mites can be difficult to get rid of entirely. To get rid of the mites, do a deep clean of the coop using bleach and water. A better option is to use a pressure washer to wash the mites out of every nook and cranny, especially at the ends of the perches. You can also use a wallpaper steamer to kill the mites with steam.
Another strategy is to put double-sided tape on the underside of perches to trap the mites when they come out at night.
Poultry Keeper suggests using Coke (any brand). Pour the Coke in the cracks where the mites are. The Coke will (allegedly) dissolve the waxy coating on the mites so that they dehydrate and die.
Last Word
Stopping chickens from sleeping in nesting boxes is fairly easy to do. Most chickens will willingly sleep somewhere else if you block the entry and make sure they have an appealing place to roost. However, some hens might stubbornly insist on nest box sleeping no matter what you do, so you might have to use chicken jail at night to get those die hards to stop.
