Believe it or not, you have a very common problem! I think the hens figure "If that nest is good enough for 'her', it MUST be good enough for me!" So the fighting begins...
Sometimes they will just wait their turn, other times one will jump right in their on top of the other and lay at the same time, all squished up and all! I have 10 different nesting boxes, but the majority of my hens will only use 3 certain boxes.
Right now, I have a big Jersey Giant hen who is brooding her clutch of 12, and the other hens are still sneaking in there somehow and adding their own eggs to the pile!! I have to check everyday to fish out the interloping eggs. I marked all the keepers at the begining so I wouldnt get confused as to which ones didnt stay under her.
If you have a new layer (the trampoline layer), its normal for her to try different spots, but the goal is the nesting box. You could try putting golf balls in every nest, or fake eggs, you could evenglue them in if ya wanted so they dont get kicked out. Or try locking her in the nesting area until she's paid the rent
.
Sometimes a new layer figures it out all by themselves and just starts laying in the right spot after they see how nice the nesting boxes are and how all the other girls are doing it (kinda like a peer pressure thing!).
Try different things and try to be patient, I know its hard though!
My dirty secret is I have one Andalusian hen who WONT follow all the other hens examples and thinks she MUST lay her egg on top of my dryer in the garage. I let her cuz its so cute to tell my kids to "Go check and see if the dryer fairy has visited and left us an egg in exchange for all our dryer lint!" They all race everyday to get that one white egg, and are so excited every time, I just dont have the heart to make her stop. So far (3 months in) she hasnt pooped on anything in the garage, so I'm letting it continue, as long as she stays so well behaved!
