[lars64]

Some of our hens are sleeping in the nest box instead of on the perches with the obvious consequences.  Is blocking off the box at night a good solution?  These are all young hens, we've had them about a month.  Also the rest of the girls all crowd onto one of the perches, leaving the identical one empty.  Strange & I've no idea how to fix that one!

[HesterF]

Are the perches higher than the next boxes? Believe that can help. Mind you, I've got two or three hens that have never gone onto their perch to roost (posted about it a while ago). They're brooding now (in the nest boxes) but prior to that they huddled together in a corner, leaving just a couple on the perches (designed for up to twenty hens).

H

[chrismahon]

I'd definitely break the habit of sleeping in the nest boxes Lars64. We put plant pots in at night. Otherwise you will get poo on eggs and breed lice and mites in the boxes. They will sort themselves out on the perches. Young birds will roost together anyway.

[ZaktheLad]

We had this problem and solved it by spreading some easibed/shavings on top of the nest boxes.  The hens decided they liked this better than sleeping in the actual nest boxes and now roost on top instead, which is much preferably (no more dirty eggs!). 

[Roxy]

Mine started to do this a couple of summers back.  After investigation, I discovered redmites under the perches ,.......and they were coming out at night.No wonder the birds did not like roosting there.  Took some shifting, but once gone, the hens moved back to the ;perches.