Pullets laying in roost

Date sort Score sort
jessipanda

jessipanda

Chirping
Oct 14, 2015
34
3
52
My two polish pullets just turned a year old and have been laying at least an egg a day. Unfortunately, they have been laying them in the roost. None have cracked yet, luckily, but they refuse to lay in the nest boxes! They both sit in a nest box during the day, but haven't laid any eggs there. They lay them sometime during the night or early morning while roosting. I have a couple golf balls in each of the 3 nesting boxes, but the one pullet keeps kicking them to the edges of the boxes. They obviously like their nest boxes since they do sit in them during the day... What can I do to help teach them to lay there? Or is it just that they haven't learned to control that yet as they seem to lay while roosting?
 
Last edited:
How old are they? And how long have they been laying? I will state the obvious that polish are a goofy breed of chicken and can be difficult to work with in any way.

Are they being harassed, or do you have a rooster that's mating them constantly, it sounds like they are hiding by either sitting in the nestboxes or staying on the roosts. My polish are a favorite of my roosters because they can't see them coming so they do try to stay out of the way. It can help to trim their crests and muffs if they have them, fairly short so they can see, I would first try that and see how their behavior changes.
 
Do you have other birds......older and already laying?

It can take up to a month or so for them to figure things out.

Maybe take the golf balls out of one nest, I had a pullet who didn't like them at first.
 
No other birds. Just these two. Used to have 20+ before I moved out of state. Never had an issue with those hens.

I removed the golf balls from two nests now and just left 2 in the third. Let's see if that helps. Maybe they just need some time to figure things out. Lol

Thanks for the advice! :)
 
They laid one egg in the nest with the golf balls, but have gone back to laying in the roost. Getting at least a dozen a week, all up in the roost. Not sure I can correct this behavior now... Should I just put some bedding under the roost to ensure no eggs get cracked? It's about a 5 inch drop.
 
Okay. Once it stops raining, I'll take my camera out there. May not be till next week though... Gotta love Florida! Lol
 
Sorry I forgot to update this in April. We had all those April showers...but my girls have finally figured out the nests are best! Yay!!
1f604.png
 

Similar threads

C
Not laying in nesting box
Replies
3
Views
363
Mrs. K
Mrs. K
BoomChickWow
    • Wow
Nesting box war
Replies
2
Views
864
BoomChickWow
BoomChickWow
ShotgunDog
    • Wow
Laying from the roost at night
2
Replies
14
Views
1K
Ilovemychicks08
Ilovemychicks08
jwankowski
Egg Laying and night roosting
Replies
3
Views
948
K0k0shka
K0k0shka
B
Pushing Fake Eggs Out of Nests
Replies
9
Views
1K
BonnieBlue
B

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom