nest boxes?????????????????????????

[RASS]

Good Afternoon, I have 9 White Leghorns that just started laying 2 weeks ago BUT they will not lay in nest boxes. They find a hole in my wood pile and lays eggs there! I put one egg in each box but it did not help.
Any and ALL suggestions appreciated.

 

[SkylineFarms]

Are their nest boxes in their coop? If your coop is big enough I would lock them inside for a day or two and see if they decide to lay in the boxes then, since they won't be able to get to the wood pile.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’ve done that but it usually takes about a week to retrain them. One or two days doesn’t do it.

One trick I’ve used. I made my nests so I can lock a hen in there if I want to. When I catch a hen laying in a nest on the floor of the coop instead of in the nests, when I see her on that floor nest I lock her in the real nest until she lays the egg. That normally takes about a half hour but I have had one that took about three hours. Usually it only takes doing that once to retrain her, but on occasion I’ve had to do it twice.

 

[RASS]

Yes, boxes are in coop. I thought about that but decided to try and glean some knowledge here first.
I think coop is big enough and I think I will try that.

Thank you for your time.

 

[RASS]

Catching them in the act and then putting them in box sounds like a good idea but I don't think they would let me catch them without a big race and I hate to do that to them.

Thank you for your idea and I may try it if I can catch them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sometimes if they are settled in on the nests they are not hard to catch. Sometimes. Knowing when they are on the nest is my biggest problem.