[novicesmallholder]

Hi,

we have 15 ex bats who will not perch, but prefer to spend the night sleeping and messing in the nest box - result, very dirty eggs. Does anyone have any ideas how to dissuade them from sleeping in here and perch like "proper" chucks?

Cheers,

Mark

[whitby_sam]

If you find out will you let me know too?

[joyofchicks]

Hi -I was having the same problem with 3 out of my 5 hens recently so I looked on-line for some advice.  Can't remember the site now but the advice was this:  Wait till dark and gently shoo offending hen out of nesting box.  In the dark the hen will not see its way back in to the nest so will roost with its fellows.

I have been doing this for over a week.  Sometimes I am shooing the same offender out several times but it has worked.  Tonight all hens were on the perch at close-up time. 

Our perch was very low and near the nest box so I got my OH to raise it up away from the enticing straw.

I am not sure how practical this is for 15 hens but good luck with your mission (should you choose to accept it!)

[CameronS]

Block the nest boxes at night?

[pedigree porker]

We had same problems with few of ours, we put them onto the perches and they soon got the message, only took a couple of nights.

[sagehen]

Some of my ex batts didn't know how to perch - well they didn't know how to do a lot of things, but it did help when I put a makeshift perch in their run during the day, and they learnt to perch on that. Chickens prefer perching anyway, because their claws are made to grip around things.

[Helencus]

I tried all of the above with my ex bats and in the end had to give up and block the nest boxes at night. They're happy to perch on any old thing they can in the day but some of them just like to sit down at night.. doesn't seem to be hurting them and my OH made some boards up to slot in at night so no big deal.

[sagehen]

I don't think it's a big deal really, and I still have to wash the eggs anyway because they don't seem to have a dedicated poo spot - they just do it everywhere in the coop, unlike the others that aren't ex batts.

[Helencus]

that's interesting so non ex bats are cleaner then? my ex bats do it anywhere and everywhere makes cleaning them an arduous task.

[sagehen]

My non ex batts (don't know about anyone else's) have a special poo spot at the end of the coop. They won't soil their nestbox, or their corner of straw (these don't perch because the coop hasn't got one).

[novicesmallholder]

Thanks for the replies, think will try blocking the box at night, they do poo anyand everywhere, and the eggs when we pick them out are disgusting, can't sell them as they are, so we need to clean them and that affects shelf life?.........