ESCAPE ARTIST -- Won't lay in her nest box!

[BioBob]

My first layer is a Black Sex Link.

She laid her first two eggs in the nest box, and the next 5 under a boxwood. I had been letting them free range for a couple of hours a day, but since this new behavior, I have been keeping them penned up.

Bertha, however, always finds a way to escape and leave an egg under the boxwood, and if you didn't look you would never suspect, as she sneaks BACK in the coop, as if she had never left.

She is a clever young girl!

How do I entice her to return to the nest box? I was sure I had her secured today, but as of right now, she is sitting under the boxwood tuning up for her "Chicken Song"

HELP!

 

[Happy Chooks]

I have golf balls in my nesting box. I don't know if it's worked or not, but my red sex link lays in the box every time.

 

[katkat92]

My boxes also have golf balls in them and it seems to help. Occasionally I will have a new layer start somewhere odd...like in the far corner of the barn on the floor. I just block off the area for a few days or pile up rocks there and she usually moves to the boxes with the other hens.

 

[BioBob]

I use a fake brown egg (wooden), and straw, which they like to scratch around in, and even kick the fake egg out out of the nest box.

You have given me an idea though. Bertha makes her nest in Pine Straw (under the boxwood). I'm going to gather some pine straw, and get rid of the straw. We'll see how that works.

 

[cmom]

I agree with the other posts. I also have golf balls on my nest boxes and all of my girls lay in the boxes. I had hay in my nest boxes but they would kick the hay out along with the eggs. Now I have spanish moss in them and they don't bother.

 

[gwill23]

I had all my chickens laying in the same nest box and one on the porch. I put in the golf balls and now I get a nice even spread. I have 5 boxes and 12 chickens and I get 1 to 3 in each box now every day. It worked the very next day. I have seen them push them out though

.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

You are going to have to block all the ways she can get out. Remember if she can get out, somethingelse can get in!

My RIR, Houdini, got out of everything until I put another 3ft of wire up on top the 6ft chainlink fence. It leaned in about 30* so she would bump into it when she tried to jump over.