How to get them to lay eggs IN the nesting box?!?!

[MiaPia]

I have 5 hens and a roo, all just about 20 weeks old. Obviously we have been anxiously awaiting eggs! Well, this weekend we found a couple - in a tangled corner of the garden. Well, obviously she got the urge (we believe it is the Cuckoo Maran) when she was out and about and found herself a spot.

So I decided to keep them locked up until after I get the eggs - they have a nice little coop and completely enclosed yard - I just let them out to free range early in the AM. Well, today she DID lay the egg in the coop, but it was on the floor of the coop (kind of under the roost, so I wonder if she laid it while she was up there?), and broken.

I've been waiting MONTHS for fresh eggs from my girls, and the first three have been unusable! (Since we didn't know how long the eggs had been in the garden, we didn't want to chance it).

So how do I get her - and her sisters when it's their time - to lay IN one of the lovely 3 nesting boxes? They are nice and comfy, and I even put a golf ball in there - maybe I should find a fake egg? Ack - this is killing me!

 

[keljonma]

The golf balls should work. If you can catch her in the act, pick her up and immediately put her in a nest box. If she gets out, pick her up and put her back in. It worked for us with our most persistant floor layer.

 

[Chirpy]

Sounds like you are doing it all 'right'. Keep them locked up so they have less choices of places to lay and maybe add a fake egg also. Hopefully, once some of the other girls start laying they will do it in the nest box and the first girl will get the idea from them.

Good luck.

 

[Badhbh]

I just kind of stuck my girls in there to check the boxes out, and they used them. I still find a random egg in the run or on the floor (or in the waterer?!?) but for the most part they're laying in the boxes.