The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: greenfingers on September 06, 2008, 08:03:20 pm
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Hi,
Can anyone tell me why my chickens have suddenly started to take all the straw from the nesting boxes onto the floor of the shed. I have cleaned it out again today and within a few minutes they were in there taking the straw out of the boxes. I put clean sawdust on the floor of the shed and fresh straw in the boxes, I did the same last week and the same thing has hapened this week. I also put a bundle of straw on the floor for Betty to sleep on with her babies but they still put all the other straw out. Why is this??? ??? ???
Am I doing something wrong.
ELaine
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How interesting! No idea why they would do this. The straw's not mouldy or anything?
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No the straw is fresh and clean and does not smell. What happens if the start to nest, I assume that they will use the straw on the floor to lay in and not the luxury nesting boxes my hubby made for them.
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sorry i cant think wht they would do that either
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I had a problem with my hens cleaning out there nest boxes as well, and couldn't figure out why. My grandfather stopped by on night and fixed the problem for me. He raised the boxes up (as I had them on the floor as well) about 12 inches, and put a small lip on the bottom and a shade over the top to make it dark in there. He also put a wooden egg in each nesting box. They finally figured it out and have left them alone since then and I haven’t had the problem since. I'm not sure what the problem was as we changed all of those things at the same time, but it worked.
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Tweedle's response finally turned on the light for me - I always wondered why my old boss insisted on having the nest boxes raised about 12 inches with lip and roof; hens do like to roost up a height and the shade obviously makes them fel secure enough to lay
hopefully tweedle's tips will work