Just wondering how fastidious other peoples hens are at cleaning the box when the chicks start to get bigger? I have a hen with two chicks at the moment and the area where the hollow is in the box floor is kept spotless. She waits for poops to harden just a little and then she scoops them into the corner of the box. She also won't let me put any nesting material in there at all.

 

There is this funny little pile of dry poops piled up in th back corner which I just have to tip inot the bin every now and then

Edited May 22, 200817 yr by melbournebudgies

Mine are pretty good in general. Some hens let me put nesting in and some dont. My lovely Missy who has just had her first two babies seems very unfussed (is there such a word?) about the fact I added shavings yesterday, she hasnt removed them and is doing fine. My messiest, dirtiest hen though, and I have no other like her, seems to have a very "wet" box no matter how many times she has bred, from the first clutch she had in Sept to the one she has just now. (She hasnt been breeding all that time, she has had a rest inbetween). Someone suggested to me that she may produce too much crop milk? I have no idea, anyway I have filled her box with all sorts of stuff to try to keep things cleaner, but she obsessively tosses everything out and still manages to have dirty babies. I have just resigned myself to gently, regularly checking and cleaning babies in her case, which seems to be working fine.

I have a hen who is spotless and tirelessly empties waste (and nesting material) out onto the cage floor. She is a brilliant mother

Another hen of mine, is not clean at all. Poop gets stuck to the bubs and i constantly had to pick off all the muck and empty her box for her. Lazy little miss hehehe

 

I think, just like us humans, birds have different parenting skills and values too

Edited May 22, 200817 yr by **Liv**

Mostly mine just clean out the box until they lay eggs & then don’t clean again till they are going to lay again. Which is not a problem to me, as I don’t have concaves in mine & just put coarse river sand in the base & the poops just form in dry pellets, the only muck that gets on my young chicks is on their rings, making it very easy [i don’t’ think] to read the numbers.