First egg but hens not going into nesting box?

[ArtistaRaquel]

I have 4 of those little giant nests for my 8 girls. I originally had only 2 but they all wanted to just use one, so there was some cackling while others were waiting (pushing, shoving) for their turn. The original 2 were only a few inches off the ground as a few of my girls are sort of heavy or slighty crippled, but I put the fourth one up above the others to give them something different and interesting to try to entice them to use more than one. No one touched the higher one until I added a 2x2 across to give them the opportunity to check it out without fully committing to going in... now I frequently get eggs out of 3 of the nests, including the higher one. They all still seem to want to lay in their favorite one, but at least they give in to laying elsewhere sometimes now.

 

[Hedwig]

My dad made 3 nesting boxes for 9 hens. Once in a while they miss the nesting box and lay outside or by the feed but most of the time they lay in the boxes. My nesting boxes are coop level so they don't have to jump/fly up to them.

 

[GOLDENSEABRIGHT]

those roost boxes look ten times better. nice hardmenship

 

[alebuela]

those roost boxes look ten times better. nice hardmenship

All my now-13 and 14-week old chicks decided to sleep all together in the 2 floor-level nesting boxes of the coop. They're totally uninterested in the two roosting bars in the coop itself. One of my pullets has been squatting a lot lately, and I just realized if she starts laying soon the nesting boxes are occupied. Will there be a problem if they continue to sleep in the boxes; should I block off one of the two?

 

[GOLDENSEABRIGHT]

well that's up to you really, it could go either way

 

[aart]

So, I found my second egg on the floor today as I was building this. I'll wait and see...

There ya go!
Might want to move it a bit closer....I don't think those skinny perches on the nests are at all functional.
Maybe even attach a 2x4 to the skinny perches using a conduit clamp underneath.

 

[iwiw60]

There ya go!
Might want to move it a bit closer....I don't think those skinny perches on the nests are at all functional.
Maybe even attach a 2x4 to the skinny perches using a conduit clamp underneath.

I agree...the perch you built is too far away from the boxes...move it in closer, maybe?

 

[Wisher1000]

I would suggest that you just add another board, as close to the entrance as you can get it. Even if it touched the nest box, the hens would like to stand there and look.

 

[rushmoor3]

I just replaced my bucket nests with those and my hens love them. I have some Sinatra Arial sized hens too. When our first hens started laying I did put some ceramic eggs in the next boxes. Seemed to have worked. The darn things were so realistic we collected them a few times and once I gave them unknowingly to a friend who brought them back confused. LOL

LOL.....that sounds like something I would have done....lol

 

[karenerwin]

You asked how the hens would see the fake eggs, well if the roosting bar is higher than the nest boxes (as it should be), then the hens will spy the egg when the go to roost for the evening.
When my first hens started laying, they were laying on the ground, sometimes right under the nest boxes! We lowered the nest boxes onto the ground & then after they were comfortable laying in then we raised them back up. I also used fake eggs for a little while.