Leslie : Haven't written you in a while. I need to ask if someone can give me any advise on something? We have 4 Black Austrolorp hens, we are still waiting for them to start laying. They are just about 5 mos. now and was told that being show birds, they begin laying between 5 & 6 mos. of age. My issue is, we have a hutch-type coop, which isn't very large, at least by standards of coops that are more shed types. My birds are getting quite big now, bigger than I may have first thought. We got them the 23rd of March and it was freezing cold quite a few nights so when they put themselves to bed, all 4 of them stack themselves in one 12"x12" side of a 2 nest nestbox. We had originally put in some roosts but they weren't good for the set up or size of the birds, etc. We took them down and then put a smaller one lower and near the window and moved their food and water over. My husband saw one of the birds sitting on that roost one morning when he let them out into their run. My concern is that one of them, or maybe more will get crushed or hurt if they keep doing this as it is getting up to 90 degrees again this week. Should I try to break them of this by closing off the nestbox at night? I just don't know what they will do if I do that. When they actually start to lay, I will have to leave the boxes open. I just don't know how to break them of this. Sometimes I'll look in the window and probably the biggest one will get out of the box, cause she can't fit!!! I know one had also slept in the other box a time or two as it had poop in the next day. Only one of the hens is on the smaller side. I can't even figure out how they get themselves in one small nestbox! I hear them knocking and making all kinds of noises when they start shoving each other in to go to sleep. Can someone help with some suggestions? Would be greatly appreciated!!! Thank you so much! Leslie Komar, Berwick, PA

My Reply : Sometimes it can just be that they don't really know what to do and so showing them (as a mother hen would) might do the trick so it may help to manually put them on the roosts for a few nights to see if they take the hint, otherwise, blocking off the nestboxes might be the only way to stop their habit of using the nestboxes at night. If they never like to use the roost there may be a practical reason such as not feeling secure or being in a draft etc. ~ Any ideas anyone?