Chicken Nest Box That Reports How Many Eggs Each Chicken Lays

[Col1948]

After reading this thread, I wonder how the people who have battery hens know if a chick has laid or not, from some of the pictures I've seen they have a few hens in one pen/box.
I have read that when a hen stops laying they either sell it or cull it, so again how do they know if there is more than one hen in each box?

 

[Kat2141]

After reading this thread, I wonder how the people who have battery hens know if a chick has laid or not, from some of the pictures I've seen they have a few hens in one pen/box.
I have read that when a hen stops laying they either sell it or cull it, so again how do they know if there is more than one hen in each box?

My girls don't always pile in like that, just once in a while. But that being said, they are also just over a year old, there are not many and I'm not terribly concerned if they quit laying when they get older. They are welcome here until they pass on. ☺

 

[Sara L]

Another thought for you, is this might help identify egg eaters.

Weighs first chicken activity, registers egg was laid, chicken leaves, weighs second chicken activity and first egg weight is gone after second chicken leaves.

 

[LittleMissCountry]

I don't have problems with it (and neither do they), I was just saying that it could cause issues with your device. Others may have hens that do the same thing. I wouldn't have a need to get something like that anyway for the few chickens I have. Good luck with your endeavor.
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Mine actually do the pile. There are three in this picture. One is actually on top of the other one completely.

 

[LittleMissCountry]

Wow, I have never seen that with my hens. I suspect your hen boxes are bigger since I don't think that would be possible in mine (maybe 2 could squeeze in, but I've never seen that).

That said as long as they were putting all their weight on the floor I think this should mostly work. It wouldn't be hard to see that multiple hens were piled in there because the additional weight would make it pretty clear. The only issue I can see is their bands might not be read if they actually lay eggs in this configuration.

If there are issues you might want to reduce the size of the hen boxes.

Mine squeeze in the same box. Three in one box here. I have three nesting boxes, but they all use the same one.

 

[Kusanar]

Maybe a roll out nest box that has a sensor across the roll out area so it will register if there is an egg and prompt the saving of that scan. So, hen goes in, it scans for her continuously until it gets a good scan, she leaves, no egg, scan is deleted (or could be saved as a non egg), hen goes in, gets scanned, egg is laid, hen leaves and egg rolls out triggering the sensor, then the egg is logged to the hen. With this, you could have the eggs funnel down to single file, so you would know the first egg belongs to hen A and the 2nd one goes to egg 2

 

[LikeTurkeys]

I know this is an old thread but has anyone else thought about this? @MauriceR, have you ever prototyped your nest box idea? I am immensely interested in this so that I can have several hens in one breeding coop and know which eggs belonged to which hen. This would allow me to essentially 'pedigree' their offspring, avoiding all chance of inbreeding or overly close relationships.