Well after more than 6 months....

Hey everyone...I have to admit I'm blown away by how much this forum has helped me. After more than 6 months of using BYC as my go to source for chicken info I felt the right thing to do is finally intro myself and share my experiences... and of course...ask a ton more questions.

I got my day old chicks on Valentines Day of this year. I split an order with a friend of mine at work. My order was supposed to be the following:

1 Black Jersey Giant Rooster and the rest of these hens...

3 Black Austrolorops
3 Black Stars
3 Rhode Island Reds
2 Rose Comb Brown
1 Exotic

Well I ended up with 2 roosters, had a Rose Comb Casualty, and still somehow have 14 chickens total *shrug*

I truly went all out on these things. I'm a bit of a health nut and decided to raise my chickens organically. Here we are a little more than 6 months later and I've had 3 eggs and can't get them to use their nesting boxes. I've tried the golf balls, real eggs, different bedding and I'm running out of ideas. They just make a nest in the bedding and lay on the ground. I'm looking for some ideas and am ready to answer any and all questions. This is more about my intro but thought I'd throw my current problem in with it. Thanks all!!

Glad you joined us!

Feel free to ask plenty of questions! We are all here to help.

Greetings from Oregon! Don't feel alone on the nest box situation. One of my gals uses the nest box religiously, but a new layer is just plain frustrated! In the coop, outta the coop, in and out, driving me insane!

Thanks for the warm "Welcome"!!! I've caught her in the box cackling like mad but she won't commit. Just went out there 5 min ago and found the bedding disrupted in the boxes but she had layed on the ground again...hmph!

Hello and Welcome To BYC! Congratulations on those first eggs Besides birds that just like to drive us crazy doing what they want, it sometimes takes pullets a time or two to use the boxes, they don't really seem to know what is going on and it can take them a long time to lay that egg and they give up or start running around before they have laid it, and oops, floor egg. Make sure your boxes are dark, preferably have tops on them, are easy to get into (have a perch in front if above ground level etc. If you can, you might want to post pictures of your nesting box set up in the coop design forum, maybe somebody can give you some ideas that will make the girls happier about using them. https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/9/coop-run-design-construction-maintenance

cfdjay said:

Thanks for the warm "Welcome"!!! I've caught her in the box cackling like mad but she won't commit. Just went out there 5 min ago and found the bedding disrupted in the boxes but she had layed on the ground again...hmph!

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I'm with ya!! I jut heard the egg song a few minutes ago...wheee! NOT! Guess where she laid it? In the poop tray...again...yikes!

Welcome to BYC! Glad you decided to join our flock. A lot of us were lurkers before joining. I'm sorry about your Rose Comb casualty. You have a nice mixed flock. I have both Black Sex Links (Black Stars) and Black Australorps in my flock, and they are my two favorite kind of chickens. Black Stars are hardy, friendly, egg laying machines and if I had only one type of hen in my flock, they would likely be it. Black Australorps are my favorite, standard breed (Black Stars are hybrids) because they are extremely hardy, calm and gentle, and excellent layers of large, brown eggs. You've been given some good advice by the other BYC members. Please feel free to ask any other questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck with your hens' nesting issues.

Welcome!

I have a pullet who took a lot of interest in the nests just as she was beginning to lay but seemed too anxious to stay still so she was laying them on the floor and out in the run. I decided to reduce distractions for her and close up the coop when she went into the nest to give her some alone time and voila! She's now settled enough that she's consistently using the nest and I no longer have to close up the coop for her. She has even encourage another pullet who just started laying about a week ago, to share the nest with her and they will lay their eggs together over chats during their girl time. It's pretty adorable.

Welcome to BYC! We're glad to have you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

Sometimes new layers just don't like the nest boxes. Make sure the boxes are in an accessable area, are dark enough, large enough, very clean and I like to keep real looking fake eggs in the boxes. I have never had any luck with golf balls. My girls were too smart for that. You can get some nice fake eggs on line brown or white....http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Hen-Tre...d_bxgy_petsupplies_text_y/179-3032947-7657305

Enjoy your flock and welcome to ours!