Usually, a chicken’s dropping will not cause them to stop laying eggs. However, if the coop is too dirty or the chickens have no access to clean water, they may stop laying eggs. If you’re having trouble getting your chickens to lay eggs, make sure their living conditions are as comfortable and conducive to egg-laying as possible.
Chickens are creatures of habit, and once they know where their roost is, they will return to it every night–like clockwork. Keep your chickens in their coop for 1-2 weeks.
It is true chickens are creatures of HABIT. Once they have in their mind that they need to return to the coop, they will do it like clockwork. If you have them in the habit of returning to their “home” (the coop), then it is unusual for the habit to be broken.
Another thing we asked ourselves was, why won’t my chickens go into the coop at night?
If it is older birds it could be that the coop has pests. Not the same, or as bad as a predator, but mice or rats or red mite in the cracks of the wood might be putting your hens off entering the coop at night. Who’d want to sleep in a lice ridden bed! It can make them a little scared and it will stop them sleeping. So they won’t want to go in.
Moral: please provide your chickens roosts to sleep on! In the wild, a flock of chickens try to get as high off the ground as they can at night, most often in the branches of a tree. They do this to help them stay safe from land predators. What we are trying to do is train the chickens that their coop is a safe place to sleep at night.
You may be thinking “Do chickens know when it’s time to go home?”
So as the day draws to a close, and it starts to get dark, the hens already sense that it is time to go home – to the warmth and safety of the coop. It is true chickens are creatures of HABIT.
Do some breeds of chickens have dirty bottoms?
Yes, some chickens breeds suffer dirty bottoms more than others. Commercial hybrids do not take well to feeds other than pellets and the habit of re-homing rescued battery hens makes this a common problem as the hens are already weakened.
Does chicken wire keep chickens in or out?
This is a good place to note that chicken wire keeps chickens in but will not keep predators out! Many people have found this out the hard way thinking their birds are secure and safe, only to find it wasn’t. Your coop should be able to withstand an assault from many different sources.
Do chickens poop and lay eggs at the same time?
It may happen occasionally and once ot twice is nothing to worry about but a chicken with a permanently dirty bottom has something wrong with it. Chickens poop and lay eggs out of the same hole or vent, called the cloaca. There is some nifty biology in there that normally stops both processes happening at the same time but not always.
How do you secure a chicken coop in the winter?
I use a metal chain to suspend the fixture, duct tape to secure the wiring, and an extra securing with strong twine for securing all! We have talked in our complete guide to raising chickens in winter about heating the coop during winter. Adult chickens do not need extra heat over the winter.