All hens... 1 nest box. Ugh.

[Murdy]

So, I've got 5 hens (used to have 8)and 3 nest boxes. Aside from location in the coop, they're identical. The girls only lay in 1 of them though. I've seen up to 3 hens in it at a time, with another hen impatiently waiting (squawking non stop) for her turn.

What gives? Is there a trick to getting them to use the other ones? This becomes an issue when my orpington goes broody.

 

[Sooner Magnolia]

Have you tried putting golf balls or fake eggs in the other boxes? Chickens are followers and like to lay where others have already laid eggs.

 

[Secondof9]

My 3 hens do the same thing!

 

[3KillerBs]

This is normal.

But making sure that there are fake eggs in all the boxes can help spread them out.

 

[MeliticusBee]

I only keep 2 fake eggs in the coop but I rotate them around to different boxes.
I don't know why I do it that way as I actually have 6 fake eggs...but it seems to work - right up until one goes broody and everyone tries to pile in to the other boxes. Yesterday I had 2 hens each in 2 out of 4 boxes...but then realized that two of the hens are broody.
One is off to broody jail - the other will go in a day or so.

 

[aart]

Keep one fake egg in each nest.
Tho location could be the issue...any way to put them all right next to each other?

 

[cmom]

Normal behavior. I put these two nest boxes in my chick/grow-out coop when I need nest boxes. I get this quite often when several birds want to use the same nest box. In one of my coops I have a community nest box and all of the birds lay in the same spot even though there is a good amount of space. I have golf balls in all of my nest boxes.

 

[cmom]

When I go out this evening to collect eggs, I'll take a picture of the community nest box I made from scrap wood.

 

[cmom]

I originally put the wood nest boxes mounted on the wall. The birds wouldn't lay in them and I would find eggs on the floor. Then I put the totes in and they didn't like them either. I put the wood nest boxes in the totes and then they started laying in them. Go figure...

 

[GC-Raptor]

My second Flock, 7 Barred Rocks started to lay in one of three boxes.
I posted about it and aart suggested I put two fake eggs in each of the other nests and it worked for awhile. I then took out the fake egg from the popular nest. That helped too.
My third Flock 4 ISA Browns use all 3 if other nests are occupied. Most days they all need to lay around sunrise.

My first Flock 5 Golden Comets were the same way. Get laying done at sunrise.

I only had 2 nest boxes in my first coop. Found out with sex-links they like to lay every 24 hours.

I keep one fake egg in each nest unless I have a problem like my Barred Rocks. GC