Do not have only ONE nest box!

[MyaGoodness]

Do not just have one nesting box, even if you only have 2 or 3 chickens. At least one will go broody, take the nesting box and scream at all the other chickens for daring to come in the coop and scare them into laying eggs in the run. I have a coop w/ 3 nesting box and when THAT one OEGB hen goes broody, she scares everyone else into laying in the run otherwise they get screamed at and chased. (She is now in jail for it) If you have 15 chickens, have 30 nesting boxes, it still won't be enough. They will only use 3 and when 3 chickens inevitably get broody and take them, they won't lay in the other nesting boxes.

I’m dealing with that issue now. I have 5 nesting boxes with 20 layers. And all five boxes are filled with ladies sitting on eggs. Other hens are now broodie and get in the box with the original broodies, double deck or side-by-side. Any hens that just want to lay their egg finds other good places. Hide and seek for eggs. I don’t know what to do about the broodies! Now chicks are hatching and they’re instantly killed. It’s horrible! I’ve learned that Black Cooper Marans and Australopes can be quite broodie. Mine are, but the Black Stars aren’t. I’d appreciate any suggestions. This bloodiness started when 2 hens successfully hatched their little families and the others heard all the peeps.

 

[TMurphey]

First, a small haiku...

Such a fine nest box
A broody hen has found it
On no, the screaming

One of my flocks thinks they need infinite new nest boxes. Each time I add a new one it becomes The One True Box and the others are immediately stinky unless I take one of them out for a bit and put it back in again unchanged - at which point it is then worthy of becoming the next One True Box. It should then be obvious which one will be selected by a broody.

Hilarious!!

 

[TMurphey]

 

[Schreib69]

The notion that 15 birds need 30 nests is ridiculous.

I have 27 hens with 7 nests and they are never all used at the same time and occasionally I see two in one at the same time. The standard on BYC is a nest for every 3-4 hens.

I do agree that a single nest is not sufficient but then I have never seen a coop with only one, much more often there are too many which takes over usable space that the flock needs.

 

[Schreib69]

I just started raising chickens a year ago. Not a pro.
Anyway, my coop is relatively small(7' square) and I started out with two nesting boxes. Then, I lowered it and they STILL would not USE it. So, I cut it in half(one box) and removed the special plastic commercial nest with an angled drop into a covered egg catch. THEN, finally!, they started using it-- all four of them. initially some were dumping eggs in corners making them hard to retrieve, but I finally got them all laying in the same SINGLE box. We do hear them squaking at each other but by the end of the day, all four, sometimes 3 eggs, are there in that single nest. So, far the others are not intimidated enough to lay elsewhere. Lucky, it appears.

Anyway, I think the poster above was not suggesting to have 30 nests but exaggerating, a hypothetical, to make a point.

 

[C Siena]

My bantam broody took all the upper row of nests. Even the big dual purpose ladies are scared of her pterodactyl screams and will only lay on the bottom row.
It took me 1 year to train them into using the upper row lol...

Ours have Never used an upper row in 2 years. I placed a golf ball in a couple but noooo.

 

[C Siena]

The notion that 15 birds need 30 nests is ridiculous.

I have 27 hens with 7 nests and they are never all used at the same time and occasionally I see two in one at the same time. The standard on BYC is a nest for every 3-4 hens.

I do agree that a single nest is not sufficient but then I have never seen a coop with only one, much more often there are too many which takes over usable space that the flock needs.

We have 6 boxes with 9 hens and not one will use the upper, 2 prefer the garage (in a pile of leaves behind a 5' statue of St. Joseph). The other coop has 5 boxes with 15 hens. Only one hen yells at them and she is from the other coop!
Now, depending on how many new chicks (15) are pullets, we may need to add a couple more than 5 as there could be a total of 21 laying, but not until after Labor Day.