Keeping Chickens Free Range

[lazy gardener]

Metric sockets should go in the nest box, because i've never found a legit use for a metric socket!

 

[JessicaThistle]

Love them chicks: Yes and no to your question. Often the first egg will come as a surprise and may be dropped anywhere. i found my first egg beside the water dish. It wasn't there when I filled the dish, 2 minutes later, it was laying beside the dish with a very surprised pullet standing near by. I'd recommend that when all the signs point to an egg being imminent, that you at least lock them in the run until a laying pattern is established, perhaps even just keeping them locked in until noon. Put fake eggs in all nest boxes. Chickens are great copycats, and when one gets the hang of it, the others will follow suit. But, woe to the flockster who's girls start laying under their favorite shrub!! (or in the tool box!)

Jessica: I just have to have some fun with you! Chickens learn by example. Have you tried climbing in the nest box yourself? (Sorry, couldn't resist) As far as the chicken laying her eggs in the tool box, you need to show her that the nest box is really preferable. Have you tried putting a hammer, and perhaps a few metric sockets in the nest box??

Oh man! If I could climb in there and show her, I would. However, I'm pretty sure if I got my big hiney in there, I wouldn't be able to get it back out! I'm not sure if putting a hammer and sockets in there would help or not. (metric, haha, love that comment. There are no metric parts on a sprint car!)

Try putting the little box with the hay in the nest box.....and tell your lazy Husband to close the tool box!! LOL
Next, sit her in the nest box and tell her "Egg's go here"..maybe hang a sign that says that?
Why does she like the tool box? Is it higher than the nest boxes? Lower? Shinier, duller, bigger, smaller...If she is a pure breed, and the Tool Box is Snap-On maybe she is just too good for your cheapo nest boxes?
When you figure it out, you'll be smart as a chicken!
It can take some creativity & ingenuity
Leaving her in the coop until she lays is a good idea, you could also limit her access to the tool box.
I had some that started laying on top of the nest boxes.......so I took the tops off of them, they do not seem to mind the open top nests?
Many people put milk crates on the floor of the coop with a bit of hay and the girls lay in them, a friend had 3 milk crates layed on their side, his girls used them all just fine. Then one day one of them got turned up straight and they all started using just that one.

Why metric sockets? Are these Imported English Chickens? If they are good old American SAE chickens they probably will refuse the metric sockets!!
LOL -

Ah, the tool box. You nailed it with Snap On and it's the Rolls Royce of tool boxes. It's the pit cart and holds nearly all of my hubbies tools.



Here's the nest boxes inside of the henhouse. She laid there when I kept her locked in, but I like to let my girls free range. I guess she just prefers that fancy tool box. The problem is on Saturdays when we go racing. Her tool box nest leaves. I suppose she will have to settle for those perfectly planned and hand built with love nesting boxes!

 

[RoosterLew]

Oh man! If I could climb in there and show her, I would. However, I'm pretty sure if I got my big hiney in there, I wouldn't be able to get it back out! I'm not sure if putting a hammer and sockets in there would help or not. (metric, haha, love that comment. There are no metric parts on a sprint car!)

Ah, the tool box. You nailed it with Snap On and it's the Rolls Royce of tool boxes. It's the pit cart and holds nearly all of my hubbies tools.



Here's the nest boxes inside of the henhouse. She laid there when I kept her locked in, but I like to let my girls free range. I guess she just prefers that fancy tool box. The problem is on Saturdays when we go racing. Her tool box nest leaves. I suppose she will have to settle for those perfectly planned and hand built with love nesting boxes!

I am a machinist, the son of a mechanic and a racer.
So please allow me to make an experienced, qualified, expert evaluation of that photo and your situation.....

REGARDLESS of what your hubby says, the fact that the chicken is alive tells the truth, HE LOVES YOUR CHICKENS!!
Maybe he is hoping to use feathers on his sprint car wing?

 

[JessicaThistle]

I am a machinist, the son of a mechanic and a racer.
So please allow me to make an experienced, qualified, expert evaluation of that photo and your situation.....

REGARDLESS of what your hubby says, the fact that the chicken is alive tells the truth, HE LOVES YOUR CHICKENS!!
Maybe he is hoping to use feathers on his sprint car wing?

Haha! Yes, he does.

Matter or fact, last Saturday we went off to our race and he had left the little box that we have there for her to lay in on the toolbox. I stuck it up on the top part of the box so it was out of the way during the night. The next day, he let the chickens out of the run and put the box back down in it's normal spot. She promptly bwawked at him, jumped up there and laid him an egg. I think he kind of thinks it's neat that she picked his area for it but he wishes she'd use the nesting box that he painstakingly built for that purpose.

I also think he's a little afraid that the other 7 will decide to follow in her footsteps!

Maybe when the others are laying in the nest box, she will decide that's the right place for her too. If not, we will forever have a box of hay on the toolbox. My husband will grumble about it and secretly not really care.

Hmmm....feathers on the sprint car. Interesting idea. I wonder how we could attach them so that they would actually stay while he is driving 80 to 100 mph.

 

[RoosterLew]

You can also try taking her egg,right after she lays it, and putting it in the nest box.
Another idea, move her nest box closer to he real boxes a bit more each day.

 

[lazy gardener]

Now, after seeing the tool box, I completely understand the pullet's issue. In my mind, I was imagining my Dad's old fashioned wooden trough tool box, complete with a dowel handle, where he kept all of his WOOD working tools, including an old fashioned plane, and brass plumb bob... Sorry, trip down memory lane. Any how... Now I see the problem: You need to paint the nest box red and put a couple of NASCAR decals on it.

 

[JessicaThistle]

You can also try taking her egg,right after she lays it, and putting it in the nest box.
Another idea, move her nest box closer to he real boxes a bit more each day.

The racing trailer containing the tool box is literally 3 feet from the coop. I think she just thinks it's an extension of the coop. We spend hours every evening in and out of the trailer and the girls also wander in and out. I think she figured her egg wouldn't get missed there since we spend so much time there. The little box with the hay in it is not the draw to the tool box. She laid the first one right on the metal top. It cracked a bit, that's why we gave her the box. I think she really likes my husband and is giving him a gift.

Now, after seeing the tool box, I completely understand the pullet's issue. In my mind, I was imagining my Dad's old fashioned wooden trough tool box, complete with a dowel handle, where he kept all of his WOOD working tools, including an old fashioned plane, and brass plumb bob... Sorry, trip down memory lane. Any how... Now I see the problem: You need to paint the nest box red and put a couple of NASCAR decals on it.

That's great and hilarious! I guess I never thought of it like that. I wonder if red paint and decals would change anything.

 

[Tikkijane]

We have 7 girlies and they free range during the day, They started out just staying around the tractor with us watching over them like doting new parents. As they have gotten older and fatter we have let them grow up. We let them out around 7 a.m. they have eaten their food and had water then they run(funniest thing ever) to the bird feeder. There they chase the squirrels away and eat the fallen food. Then their off to the back feeder. Then back around to the front door to see if my husband might be coming out with a snack. Maybe some grated cheese or scrambled eggs. By now it's getting into the high 80's and they will start to hunker down under a large azalea bush,  for a while. In the evening after one more snack and some special attention(we have 5 that will sit on our laps and let us scratch them) the leader will take them all into the coop for the evening.  I am hoping that leaving them in the coop until 7 will encourage an egg. Someone told me that where they lay the first egg is where they will lay the other eggs from then on? Is that true?

Not AT ALL true. At all. Nope nope nope.

 

[bobbi-j]

We have 7 girlies and they free range during the day, They started out just staying around the tractor with us watching over them like doting new parents. As they have gotten older and fatter we have let them grow up. We let them out around 7 a.m. they have eaten their food and had water then they run(funniest thing ever) to the bird feeder. There they chase the squirrels away and eat the fallen food. Then their off to the back feeder. Then back around to the front door to see if my husband might be coming out with a snack. Maybe some grated cheese or scrambled eggs. By now it's getting into the high 80's and they will start to hunker down under a large azalea bush, for a while. In the evening after one more snack and some special attention(we have 5 that will sit on our laps and let us scratch them) the leader will take them all into the coop for the evening. I am hoping that leaving them in the coop until 7 will encourage an egg. Someone told me that where they lay the first egg is where they will lay the other eggs from then on? Is that true?

They will most likely continue to lay in that spot unless you change their mind. Several of my chickens are afternoon egg-layers, so if I want them to lay in a specific place (oh, let's just say in the coop in the nest box for instance - novel idea for some of them...) I would leave them locked in the coop/run until they're done laying. Then I let them out for the rest of the day. After a few days of this, they generally lay where I want them to.

 

[RoosterLew]

And you always think you have them all straightened out...then one day you move that old mower out behind the barn and find 23 eggs....Just saying, it could happen!