Buff Orpington pullets - NOT laying in the nest - can she be trained?

[MIKE555444]

First off I have designed my nest from the many suggestions here on Backyardflock. I made 5 nests so the they would not take up my floor space and they can be accessed from outside the chicken house. I have also read many posts where Buff Orpington are sometimes difficult to get that egg in the nest at first lol

So anyway… my first layer has been laying for almost a week and she always makes her own nest in the floor in front of my fancy nests. I have an idea and I am trying it now. I have a milk crate in the same corner where she likes to lay “baited” with golf balls of course. If I can get her to lay in the milk crate I thought I could slowly raise the crate up to the height of the other nest. So far she is laying her egg in front of the milk crate.

On a positive note a second pullet layed yesterday and went straight to the nest I built and deposited her egg.

Here are my nests…. Any suggestions? (Most of my flock is BO even though they all hid from this picture)

 

[Happy Chooks]

I'm not an expert, but here's what worked for me with my BO.

She laid her 1st egg under my apple tree. I saw her going in and out of the coop many times and she was squawking a lot, so I figured she was going to lay. I think it just surprised her, and she couldn't make it back to the coop.

The next day she laid on the floor of the coop. She made a nice hole in the shavings. I picked up the egg and messed up the nest. I put 3 fake eggs in 1 nest, clustered together like a clutch. She laid a few more on the floor of the coop, again with me collecting the egg and messing up the nest. It only took about a week and she was using the boxes. (it might have helped that some others began to lay and she saw them using the boxes.)

 

[MIKE555444]

Quote:
I have golfballs in all the nest... so i'm crossing my fingers.

I also mess up the little nest she makes every day