Chicken sporadically laying in nesting box

[Tulips08]

I have a flock of 4 (2 Easter Eggers, 1 Olive Egger, 1 Speckled Sussex), my coop has 8 nesting boxes (although it is a small coop... poor design, I didn't choose it), 4 boxes get used regularly. For the last 3 months, three of my chickens (2 EEs and 1 SS) have been laying and all of the eggs have been in the nesting boxes. My OE just started laying two weeks ago. On days that my OE lays, my Speckled Sussex lays her eggs in random places (middle of the coop, under the coop, in the run...). There are fake eggs in the nesting boxes that they lay in (they've actually moved the eggs from the non-preferred boxes into the preferred boxes) and the OE's preferred box is not the same as the SS's preferred box. I even saw my SS sitting in the nesting box yesterday and she got up and left, laying her egg under the coop.

Why is she doing this? And can I get the behavior to stop somehow? I'm not a fan of middle-of-winter egg hunts that involve me crawling in the snow to find eggs.

 

[Boonie Stomper]

Lets look at you nest boxes & coop. There may be some clue?

 

[Tulips08]

Lets look at you nest boxes & coop. There may be some clue?

Anything in particular you want to see? I will try to get some thorough pictures.

 

[Boonie Stomper]

Anything in particular you want to see? I will try to get some thorough pictures.

Show nest lining, hens nearby for size association, areas of floor laid on

 

[Tulips08]

Ok. Here is my little coop with one uncooperative Speckled Sussex. She laid her egg in my "coop extension" today. Yesterday it was under the coop next to the straw bale (picture 5). Other times it's just in the middle of the coop. I took pictures before I cleaned today so excuse the poop. Each nesting box is about 12" wide, maybe a little wider. I use Koop Clean for bedding in the coop and deep litter method in the "extension". You'll see some snow in the nesting boxes with the eggs. It slid in when I opened the lid to take the picture. It is normally dry/snow free in there. The middle two nesting boxes on each side are the 4 favorites. They seem to use all of them equally, but today chose the two middle on one side.

 

[eikome]

I'm fairly new to chicken keeping, but here are my thoughts.

I have a Speckled Sussex too, and she throws a loud fit if anyone is in the nest box area when she wants to lay. She seems to prefer complete privacy. Maybe you could fashion some kind of curtains for your nest boxes to increase privacy?

My boxes are also approximately 14x14x14" cubes, and my Sussex is a big girl. Maybe yours would like more room in the nest box?

 

[rosemarythyme]

My guess would be she's getting harassed or bullied by the OE while she's laying, which causes her to run off and drop her egg elsewhere but... maybe she doesn't like seeing the olive eggs? Have you seen any pecking order issues between the two?

It might be interesting to experiment and try extending the nest box dividers so they block off view between boxes, and added some privacy curtains too, which could work to help protect her from any bullying issue + keep her from seeing where the OE laid. If you don't want to build anything, it'd be as simple as stapling some cardboard to the existing dividers and stapling a swag of cloth or even a cut up feed bag as curtains.

 

[Tulips08]

My guess would be she's getting harassed or bullied by the OE while she's laying, which causes her to run off and drop her egg elsewhere but... maybe she doesn't like seeing the olive eggs? Have you seen any pecking order issues between the two?

It might be interesting to experiment and try extending the nest box dividers so they block off view between boxes, and added some privacy curtains too, which could work to help protect her from any bullying issue + keep her from seeing where the OE laid. If you don't want to build anything, it'd be as simple as stapling some cardboard to the existing dividers and stapling a swag of cloth or even a cut up feed bag as curtains.

The OE is at the bottom of the pecking order, the SS is 2nd from top. It's possible that the color of the eggs (and size... they're big!) bothers her. Chickens are funny like that. I will try to extend the nest box dividers.

Do you think I could try cardboard during my experiment or do I run the risk of them eating it? I don't have plywood laying around, but can get some and cut it and install if the experiment works. Also not sure how I'd attach curtains, but there are examples in the coop/run section of the forum, right? I'm still a new chicken keeper and while I've learned a lot, making changes to their housing has been my biggest struggle. I'm not very handy or crafty.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Cardboard should be fine. The chickens might mess with it a little since it's new but I don't think they're prone to eating cardboard. It's just an experiment at this point so I wouldn't want to commit to cutting wood just yet.

I'd use a literal stapler (like for paper) and just staple it on. I'm thinking if it's plywood it should be soft enough to allow it.

Curtains can be stapled to the wood cross beam just under the windows, that looks about the right spot for them to hang down.

If either of these work and you want to make them permanent, then I'd break out the nails or screws or wood.

 

[aart]

I'd use a literal stapler (like for paper) and just staple it on. I'm thinking if it's plywood it should be soft enough to allow it.

Ehhhh....not a good idea, IMO......paper staples won't got thru corrugated far enough to stay in the wood for long........and they might not eat cardboard but you sure don't want them to eat staples.

Might work to cut it the juuust right size to jam in tight between top and bottom of nest.