Any tips for encouraging free ranging hens to lay in their nest boxes?

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

I know I have another 2 months or more to go before anyone starts laying, but before they do I was hoping to get tips on how to make them lay in the coop instead of the grass.
My flock free ranges all day, but they put themselves to bed at night in the coop. We shut them in (and predators out!) until we get up in the morning. We are trying to remove all possible nesting spots from their yard, but they might try things I didn't think of. Even if it weren't for the mess and hassle, (or hopes to at least break even selling eggs) I have a number of people eagerly awaiting eggs.
I have 13 or 14 hens (no one knows what my white silkie is) and 5 nest boxes. Right now certain members of my flock sleep (and poop) in them, but most of those are headed for the freezer next weekend so they should be unoccupied except where the silkie pair sleeps.
I just want to do whatever I can to keep the eggs in boxes and I want to do it before it is too late.
Any suggestions?

 

[gocrow77]

Boy oh boy, I would like any suggestions on this as well. The hens I have laying right now are all old pros, though they were not free range before I got them. They are religious about laying in the nest boxes, but I have some younger pullets that range much farther from the coop than the older girls do. And, the pullets have been here and free range all their life so far, they have never been confined to the coop and laying in nest boxes. I'm hoping that they are paying attention to the older ladies and taking notes on where they choose to lay and follow their example, but I'm not real hopeful. I just know one of these days when they finally DO start laying I will walk out into the yard and step on a perfectly good egg. Right now since they are so close to laying eggs I'm always combing the yard for eggs - it would be a relief to think that there is something I could do to ensure laying in the coop.

 

[PlumTuckered]

Our Hens all started out free ranging, the first couple of months of their laying days were a riot, my husband and I searching all through the woods and pasture for eggs. We then made a huge fenced chicken yard around their Hen House and grounded them to their yard for 2 months. After that we let them out to free range and they automatically went to the hen house to lay. They need us to "teach" them where we want them to lay/sleep etc and they catch on pretty quick. My oldest layers are 3 yrs old now and will walk/run across the pasture to get to their nest boxes in the hen house.

Michelle

 

[Judy]

No guarantees provided!

Sometimes, fake eggs in the nest boxes encourage them. You can use golf balls, ceramic eggs, plastic Easter eggs filled with sand, whatever; they don't seem to be picky.

If they come to the coop at night, and sleep on roosts rather than nest boxes, hopefully they will lay in the nest boxes. My free ranging chickens always have.

 

[CAranchgirl]

To encourage my hens to lay in the nest boxes, I try to make them soft/comfortable with hay/pine shavings, etc AND more importantly keep an old egg in there at all times (or many people use a golf ball). This will make them notice the nesting box as a good place, and once they start laying I leave an egg in (marked that it is old) at all times. If you collect all the eggs and leave the box empty, the hens tend to think that a predator has raided it and look for a new place.

To gocrow77, do you leave something in the nest box? Even if your older trained hens don't need it, it might help the younger ones get the right idea.

Good luck!!

 

[cybercat]

Here is another idea. We have someone here on BYC that does not let them out of the coop till they pay the rent. So in order to go free range they have to first lay their egg. This would work up to a point if everyone layed in the morning. I am not the one that does this. When we had free range hens up north they came back to their nesting area to lay eggs. But they lived in an open barn also not a coop.

 

[crait]

Put ping pong balls, golf balls, and/or ceramic eggs where you want them to lay. Eventually, they'll find them and want to lay their eggs where the fake ones are. Worked for me really well.

 

[gocrow77]

To gocrow77, do you leave something in the nest box? Even if your older trained hens don't need it, it might help the younger ones get the right idea.

Yes, I do. I have been scouring the forums and absorbing everything I can about encouraging them to lay in the nest and applying it, lol. But, as most people do, I still worry about them laying someplace unpleasant. We have alot of brush that they have access to ( including stuff with thorns like wild blackberry bushes ) that I am SOOo afraid they will want to nest around - if I were them I would, lol! I have so many golf balls and ping pong balls and similar objects in my nest boxes that my husband makes fun of me. But, I'm still paranoid! I guess if I discover they have started laying in an inappropriate place I can conatain them in their coop/run for a few days, but I just dread that - they love their free range time......

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

Thanks everyone!
I am gonna start collecting golf balls now. I had heard of the leaving an egg trick, but I didn't know they were so non-specific. I have been looking for ceramic, wooden, stone, or plastic eggs that look realish, but all are so expensive. All my birds are brown egg layers- do they mind white golf balls?
I am hoping since they do look at the coop as 'home' that they will lay there. I made sure to leave them confined until they went inside to sleep on their own, mostly because the banty flock we had when I was growing up all roosted in trees and got eaten by raccoons just as fast as they could reproduce. I wanted to keep my birdies safe, so hopefully that training will mean good egg-laying habits too.

 

[crait]

At one point, I was using a rainbow ping pong ball. Haha. They don't mind the egg color at all.