Four hens one nesting box....

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Jesusfreak101

Jesusfreak101

Songster
Sep 2, 2015
2,129
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Texas
My Coop
My Coop
Ok here the thing we have three built nest boxes that are in the coop. Only problem we have is four of our five hens (only four laying, five are mature, 18 are not to young) well the four that are laying only use one box. I put fake eggs in the boxes(plastic easter egg) and they would go in the other boxes then complain loudly and walk out.... And go back in the one box they all seem to like.. They are all the same expect the location. I am see a future problem of 23 hens laying in one box(we plan on building more). Is there an another way to brain wash them to think the other nest are safe?(i dont want to leave real egg if i dont have to)
 
Hens always prefer a box someone else is using. My 14 hens all want to use the same (extra large size) box. I would not be concerned, when you have more hens they will use whatever space is available.
 
Are the plastic easter eggs the hollow ones?
Fill them with sand so they have some weight to them.....or use golf balls and/or get some 'real' fake eggs.

You're going to need 6 nests for 24 hens, put fake eggs in all but one nest(one of my pullets wouldn't use the nest with fake egg until I took it out.)
 
When I saw the title I thought you were going to say that you had four hens in the same nest at the same time. Several times I’ve had three hens in one nest at the same time with very similar nests right next to them empty. I’ve also seen three different nests each with two hens in them at the same time.

They tend to like to lay together or lay in the same nest. That doesn’t mean they always will though. Most of the time I find most of my eggs in one or two nests, but finding one single egg in a third nest is pretty normal for me. Most days I’ll find most of the eggs in once certain nest but occasionally they’ll choose a different nest to lay most of the eggs. While they tend to do certain things they are not consistent. As long as they are laying in a nest I’m happy.
 
We plan on building more just really no point yet as only five are mature, five others will be maturing at the end of october i believe, another seven wont mature till the end of december, and the new six have five months to go before they are ready. We plan to build more as soon as we have the funds. And yes they were hollow i put some rocks in them as these have holes on the top of them. I didnt think about the weight being an issue. I figure i would use what we already had.
 

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