pullets sleeping in nesting box

It's been abour 2 weeks since I added 3 new pullets to my 6 hens. It seems like 2 of them are sleeping in the nesting boxes at night so I'm finding poop in them in the morning. I know I have one hen thats broody right now and I know she also sleeps in them at night. Is this normal? Do they grow out of it? Pullets are now about 18 weeks old.

I think they are just feeling low on the pecking order and "hide" in the nests at night to avoid the roosting ruckus!

With some of the meeker pullets it takes a while for them to find their spot on the roost, we usually go out with a flashlight at bedtime and carefully place them on the roost (lowest one) after all the others have already chosen their spots. This seems to help and even if they fly off, after a week or so of this they do get the hang of it and then you can have clean nests..the broody one may be a problem though?

best tip ive heard is always make sure there are roosts higher than the boxes, chickens naturally want to be as high as as possible when roosting.

This is a problem that happens every single time I introduce youngsters into the hen house. They clump together in groups and jam themselves in the nest boxes. They poop in them all night and I hate gathering poopy eggs! But I noticed that they only ever roost in the top row of boxes (I have an upper row and lower row). This time I propped a piece of cardboard over the top boxes and blocked them out. The hens could still get into the lower boxes to lay eggs. This solved the problem and when I took the cardboard out 10 days later, no one roosted in the nest box.

Another thing, at night make sure your hen house is absolutely dark. This cuts down on the roost bullying a bit. If they can see each other at all, they pick and shove even worse. There is lots of room on my roosts, and the roosts are higher than the nest boxes, and I think it's just a problem of grumpy old hens not sharing with newcomers. Block them out, make the hen house dark and cross your fingers.

Hum Uno, looks like I need to remove the night light from the hen house...I had it in there for the summer when the day length was way longer than the lights stayed on in the hen house. When I moved the young pullets in I found them huddled outside the coop door the first night at dark unwilling (and unable to see) to go into the coop to roost. No windows in the coop...DH says they loose too much heat in the winter.

To train young pullets not to sleep in the nest boxes I have a door on the nest box that I close at night for the first few weeks. It forces the girls to find their p,ace on the roost instead of hiding in the nest boxes.

Thanks everyone. I'll try and cover those boxes and see what happens. At this point it would be the easier option. I like the idea of moving them out of the box after dark but the way the roost is set up it would wake up all the hens and backfire! lol!