Crowding in one next box and laying eggs in strange places?

[DelphiniumBlue]

We have four nest boxes available for our six girls, but they all seem to fight over one of the boxes. If one hen is sitting in the box, then another hen will seem to get aggravated. She'll make a lot of noise and strut around. Eventually the second hen will crowd into the same box, stepping on the first one. We've seen as many as three hens crowded into the same box! Has anyone else observed this? Why don't they use the other open boxes? Is there any way we can entice them to use the other boxes? I don't think there's anything special about that one box, because sometimes they'll switch which box they are arguing about, although they do seem to prefer the higher ones.

Also, we recently discovered a surreptitious clutch of several eggs under some lilac bushes and mint. I'm wondering if one of the girls, one a little lower down on the pecking order, got fed up with the bickering over the nest boxes and decided just to lay elsewhere. Again, any advice regarding how to coax her into laying in the boxes again?

 

[50-45-1]

I would like so see a photo of your nesting box set up.
I have 6 nest boxes with 3 golf balls in each one and i get eggs in eash box, but they still have a favorite as one box always has more. Observing my boxes i have come to the conclusion that the favorite box is at the end of the row and is darker and maybe seams more private to the girls.
Using dummy eggs works.
Do not leave real eggs in the nest boxes, they will rot and possibly get broken.

 

[Phidelt884]

Put a fake egg or golf ball in each of the nesting boxes that are currently being ignored. If your hens are like mine, they will quickly start to use the other available nesting boxes.

 

[snow5164]

I have 5 and one gets the majority of the eggs , today I had eggs in 3 and I was really surprised .

I’d check for poop in the boxes , make sure curtains cover them ,but I suspect it’s the first one in the row for a lot of us .... another canumdrum

 

[Rick M]

My original 5 barred rocks did the same thing all wanted same box and would crowd into the one. I built a lot bigger coop amd more nesting boxes and they now have started spreading out but im pretty sure i have one hen that lays her egg in the wood line as weve only been having four eggs a day for a couple weeks. Too much poison ivy to get into wood edge to check until fall and my birds free range all day.

 

[RWise]

Yes I see 3 hens in a nest, I use golf balls and have found that I can put several in an unused nest and the girls have a new fav nest.

 

[SueT]

Welcome to BYC--I have been able to get some hens to use other boxes by putting freshly laid eggs in them. Work on one box at a time, put ALL the days' eggs in it. Then the hens will look and think everyone's laying here now....hmmmm, maybe I'll do the same. It works much better than fake eggs. i put the still warm eggs from Box A into Box B. I bring them in at night, but keep one or two of that days' eggs overnight on the counter, and put those in Box B first thing in the morning, adding new warm eggs from A as they are laid.
If you try it, let me know how it goes!
Good luck!

 

[DelphiniumBlue]

Thanks everyone for your helpful replies! I will definitely try putting some eggs, fake or real, in the other boxes and see how it goes.

Here are some pics of our nest boxes. There is some wire on the top of the boxes because, despite the slanted roof, the chickens still found a way to sit up there and we didn't want them pooping up there. So we put up some netting to keep them off. In one picture you can see Bunny Sue sitting in the current favorite box.

Thanks again for the great advise.

 

[Peppercorngal]

I actually think that it's pretty funny that all your hens want one box. I have 18 nest boxes for 25 hens and they use most of them, but there are favorites. One barred rock hen will wait and chatter because she will only use ONE box, and ONE box only. If another hen is there, she will wait and give them a good talking to and a stare down until they leave and let her use it! I love it sit in the coop and watch what goes on!

 

[aart]

Yes, even using fake eggs there can be a favorite nest...but still it will help.