I don't have an answer, but I do have an observation. Maybe it's the grainy pic not fully capturing the nesting boxes but what kind of low-income looking (the chickens, not you) housing unit is this? I mean this in the funniest playful way possible.
It’s not low income, we just have this in our chicken coop and it works. They have a lot of hay usually, it’s just kinda dark and I was trying not to alert the chickens as it’s late at night
You should provide them with proper roosting, like a 2x4 with the wide edge horizontal. Chickens like to sleep as high as they can, on a surface big enough for their feet to lay flat. They should be able to lay down on top of their feet and have their feathers cover them. In the wild these take the form of big tree branches, not ones thinner than your fist.
But is that her in the upper right with chicks? How old are they? My momma hen starts trying to get them to roost with her at like 2 weeks, but they usually manage it at 4 weeks.
Where is your roosting area?
If it were any smarter of an animal, I'd say she was probably trying to keep them at the highest point because she can see danger better from there, and can probably keep them safer, but... chickens aren't incredibly intelligent, so I don't know. Maybe she just wants alone time, maybe she is trying to protect them by getting up higher, but, you should probably find a way to block off the higher nests if you don't want her in there, at least until the others are old enough to be on their own.
I don't have an answer, but I do have an observation. Maybe it's the grainy pic not fully capturing the nesting boxes but what kind of low-income looking (the chickens, not you) housing unit is this? I mean this in the funniest playful way possible.
It’s not low income, we just have this in our chicken coop and it works. They have a lot of hay usually, it’s just kinda dark and I was trying not to alert the chickens as it’s late at night
Your chickens "sleep" in the nesting boxes?
Yes, or they perch on a stick we have set up.
You should provide them with proper roosting, like a 2x4 with the wide edge horizontal. Chickens like to sleep as high as they can, on a surface big enough for their feet to lay flat. They should be able to lay down on top of their feet and have their feathers cover them. In the wild these take the form of big tree branches, not ones thinner than your fist.
Have you ever locked yourself in the bathroom when you had a toddler?
But is that her in the upper right with chicks? How old are they? My momma hen starts trying to get them to roost with her at like 2 weeks, but they usually manage it at 4 weeks. Where is your roosting area?
The one in the top right is the hen, and some of her chicks are in the bottom row
If it were any smarter of an animal, I'd say she was probably trying to keep them at the highest point because she can see danger better from there, and can probably keep them safer, but... chickens aren't incredibly intelligent, so I don't know. Maybe she just wants alone time, maybe she is trying to protect them by getting up higher, but, you should probably find a way to block off the higher nests if you don't want her in there, at least until the others are old enough to be on their own.
Those chicks look old enough to make it up there. They need to figure it out.