Arrrgggggg... Nest Box Problem!

[PepsNick]

My Lily, BSL, started laying in a home-made corner of the coop nest. Well I thought it was cute at first, so I put a fake egg in there. Why, why, WHY! So now she refuses to lay in the nest boxes and even my new layer, Pepper, lays there too. What do I do to brake this habit?? I have fake eggs in the nest boxes, but they just kick them out! Catch em' in action and stick em in the nest box? Close off their laying corner? Thanks. And BTW I have great nest boxes.

Help appreciated!



Nick

 

[WingingIt]

I haven't had this problem, but I'd think you'd have to keep them out of that corner somehow until they start laying somewhere else (hopefully the nest boxes!) regularly for a while.

 

[PepsNick]

Yeah well I would kind of want that to be my last resort since my coop is so small... It's not even walk-in, so I want them to have all the room they can.

 

[Tropical Chook]

I know some swear by the fake eggs and even golf balls, but when one of my hens was doing what yours are doing now, I tried a fake egg and they laughed in my face. I then started leaving one of her real eggs in one of the nest boxes and she then started using that box. Since then, I'm convinced a hen knows a real egg when she sees one, just as they often kick a bad egg out of the nest.

At the moment I have 3 hens all brooding in one nest box, and on one batch of eggs. The eggs are due to hatch on the 28th, so I'm curious to see how they work out who the chicks belong to.

Saying that, the one hen is a huge girl, and she has a habit of going broody on nothing and then stealing the chicks from one of the other hens in the flock. It won't be too bad this time though as the eggs in the nest box actually came from her, but I gave then to one of the other birds to set on. These will be my head rooster's first offspring, so I'm very keen to see what I get.

Good luck training your girls

 

[Ema]

mine did that. But I have movable nest boxes so I put one in the corner and every time I found another corner they nested in I added another nest box. they got the idea now and I was able to move the nest boxes back to where they were originally.

you can try the fake eggs, or you could just give them a nest box in the corner that they are laying in. maybe where you put the nest boxes is too open for them?? and they prefer the seclusion of the corner.

 

[pontoosuc]

Geeze, having a similar problem! I have 6 beautiful, buillt to spec, nest boxes that nobody is using.
Fake eggs have been in them, out of them, in them, etc.
I have 16 pullets and I think three are laying. Some eggs have been in a wine box that''s in the
coop, some have been on top of the nesting boxes, and a couple have been outside in their run.

I like the above ideas, and I'm going to try them. Thank you.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I built my nest boxes so I can lock a hen in them. When I catch a hen laying where I do not want her to lay, I lock her in a nest box until she lays the egg, then I let her go. It usually takes a half hour, but I had one that took a lot longer. Usually all I have to do is do this once and they get the message, but I have had a couple that took two times.

I've tried blocking off where they are laying. They just lay next to what I blocked off. That did not help at all.

I agree they seem to like real eggs better than fake eggs, but I had one that would lay in the nest if a fake egg was there or on the ground if a fake egg was scratched out on the ground. I still believe in the benefit of fake eggs. When they scratched the fake egg out they were telling me the lip was not high enough on the nest to stop them from scratching out the nesting material and the fake egg. I made the lip a couple of inches higher and it solved that problem.

Good luck!

 

[PepsNick]

Thanks guys! 'll try real eggs and add another strip of wood for privacy at the bottom of the nest boxes. And Tropical Chook---- Good luck on your hatch!!

 

[louisagardener]

I am having the same darn trouble. I have 15 pullets, and I'm getting 8 - 12 eggs per day. However, only 3 of them are in the nestboxes! I have clean, comfy bedding in there and fake eggs, and they don't seem to care one bit.

At first, I just chalked it up to being new to this whole laying eggs thing, and they would take some time to figure out how to make it to the nestboxes before the eggs came out. But, they seem to have adopted two corners in particular and made them into nests. And, then, I'll find usually 2 or 3 of them randomly around the floor of the coop.

I might try blocking off the two corners that they particularly seem to enjoy laying in.

Any other suggestions?

And, I know this might seem like a really stupid question, but it is ok to eat the eggs I find on the floor, right? I make a thorough check every day, so I know they are fresh and haven't been hiding somewhere for who-knows-how-long, and I pitch out any that have gotten cracked from being walked on. I've been eating the ones that don't get cracked, though, and I just want to make sure before I start giving these eggs out to friends that I'm not doing something terribly wrong.

 

[PepsNick]

Quote:
They're fine to eat. I blocked off my corner and put a REAL egg in each nest box, and now that's where they lay! I am going to leave it blocked off for about 2 weeks until they're real used to the nest boxes.