Do you keep livestock? Having any problems? Want to talk about it, whether it be sheep, goats, chickens, pigs, bees or llamas, here is your place to discuss.
I have three black rock chickens who have recently taken to sleeping in their one nest box. This is as well as laying eggs there and depositing serious amounts of poo.
Is there any way I can encourage them back on to their perch? Or should I add another nest box? or just go with the flow?
my 4 girls never seem to sleep on their perch. I was advised to just keep putting them up there and that they would get the idea, but they haven't. I decided, they are happy and healthy so I shall just leave them be
Mine sleep on their perch, but all through the summer none of them would lay in the nesting box. Now a couple are, but I still find eggs under the perch!
If all three chickens fit in the one box, it sounds almost as if it is too large. Luxury dimensions! Don't know whether making it smaller would just mean that one of them sleeps in there, and the others somewhere else... Maybe the perch is too high for them? Black Rock are quite heavy, so perhaps they just can't get up that far. Or they are just too lazy to fly.
Maybe the perch is too thin for them. They need quite a thick perch to be able to grip properly. We used a small branch from a gum tree (we live in Oz), approx. the thickness of an adult fist. It looks too big, but the chooks, including bantam, love it.
My Black Rocks would never sleep on the perch but on the floor area beside it. My Warrens want to sleep cuddled up in the nest box. The only one using the perch is the biggest hen which is a speckledy.
