Nests are now in place

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Ankhdad

Ankhdad

Chirping
5 Years
Jun 28, 2014
41
8
54
Thunder Bay, ON
Adventures continue at The Other Side spa...
So I started finding a small egg here and there in the coop a couple weeks ago, well now it's a couple. Most of the the girls are squatting now when I touch them, but I believe there are only a couple 'rent payers' right now.

Ruby and Magenta (my current layers I believe) took to the nests right away. No eggs in the baskets though, found a couple by the roost..sigh. Going to try a few golf balls in the baskets and see how that goes...
 
Those nests make me nervous....they look rather unstable and if they fall while the bird is trying to use them (and new layers are rough on nests, doing lots of scratching around trying to get comfortable), it'll put them off from using them.

They are also kind of small. The upper left one might work, if it can take the weight of a hen on the edge of it without tipping over, the lower right is way too small.

12" x 12" x 12" is minimum IMO. 14" x 14" x 14" works great. I also think that they like something more cozy and safe feeling, sides and a top with a nice ledge in front to keep the bedding inside and eggs from rolling out. They need a perch about 8" away from front of nest if they are up off the ground, so they can scope things out before entering the nest.
 
The baskets are actually bolted to the shelf,and the shelf is attached to the wall behind, so it's not going anywhere. That lower right one has been replaced and I added a perch to the top shelf.
I checked in this morning and there were 3 girls sitting there...no eggs though. (Ruby layed another one but in the roost)
 
Ankhdad said:
The baskets are actually bolted to the shelf,and the shelf is attached to the wall behind, so it's not going anywhere. That lower right one has been replaced and I added a perch to the top shelf.
I checked in this morning and there were 3 girls sitting there...no eggs though. (Ruby layed another one but in the roost)
Click to expand...

Have you tried putting some dummy eggs in there? Sometimes they need to be shown where you want them to lay.
 
Ankhdad said:
The baskets are actually bolted to the shelf,and the shelf is attached to the wall behind, so it's not going anywhere. That lower right one has been replaced and I added a perch to the top shelf.
I checked in this morning and there were 3 girls sitting there...no eggs though. (Ruby layed another one but in the roost)
Click to expand...
Oh, that's good!

It can take up to a month or so for them to figure out where to lay and lay there consistently.
Hopefully they'll feel comfortable there.
 
Aside from a couple tossing the straw all over...sigh...things are going well. I did add a few golf balls and that seems to be doing the trick. We are up to 4 now, 3 from the baskets.
 

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