First egg layer.

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Robytron

Robytron

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Hello! My name is Robert, from Columbia, MO. I have 6 chickens. 4 hatched late Feb, and two mid-May. The first 4 are almost guaranteed to be hens and we are still waiting on the two babies.

One of them started laying eggs 5 days ago. So far there have been 4 eggs! When they first started living in their coop, we kept the nesting box closed off as was suggested. After we realized one of them was getting close to laying eggs, we gave the access. Unfortunately, they insist on sleeping (and pooping) in the nesting box. Is there something I can do about this?
 
Hi Robert, welcome to BYC!

Congratulations on getting those first eggs, that's always fun.

Are your roosts higher than the nesting boxes? That usually helps. Or maybe someone is getting pecked on the roost and they are hiding out for the night in the box. If so, you may need to create more roost space. Those are the 2 things I can think of that may be happening, someone else may chime in with other reasons/fixes.

Just curious, what breed of chickens do you have?

Hope all else is going ok. It's nice to have you here!
 
You might try putting golf balls in the other nest boxes, so the girls may realize that is where "eggs," not poop belong. What makes it tricky is the one really is laying eggs, and the others are not. Maybe others have different suggestions.
 
Thanks! I will try that. The roost is about the same level. I have ideas although it originally didn't occur to me to raise it.

We put a fake egg in the nesting box when one chicken was showing signs of being ready. Once the first egg appear, we took it out. Perhaps we should put them back.
 
Robytron said:
Thanks! I will try that. The roost is about the same level. I have ideas although it originally didn't occur to me to raise it.

We put a fake egg in the nesting box when one chicken was showing signs of being ready. Once the first egg appear, we took it out. Perhaps we should put them back.
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Hello there and welcome to BYC!
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I leave ceramic eggs in my nest boxes at all times. Hens are leary when it comes to laying an egg and need to know they will be safe doing so. So when she sees an egg in the nest box, she knows it is safe for her to set there a while too.

As for pooping in the nest boxes, close them off at roosting time so they can't sleep in there and don't forget to open them up in the morning. A week or so of this and it will train them to sleep on the roost bars.

Good luck with your flock! Oh and congrats on those first eggies!! :-)
 
I not too sure of the breeds. The older ones came from a science teacher I work with who got an assortment of eggs from a friend. There is what appears to be a leghorn (the stereotypical chicken look). She is white with a couple dark feathers. Another is red/orange with black tipped tail feathers. The one laying right now looked like a chipmunk as a chick. Not sure what she is. The eggs are light brown. The fourth adult is what looks like a black araucana (at least from pictures I have seen on the web, probably a mix). She hatched from a blue egg. The two babies are a Rhode Island Red and Barred Rock (these two came from the store).
 

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