Getting chickens to use their nesting box

[Ashley Pederson]

Hello! My RIR has been laying eggs for the past week, averaging an egg a day. Our problem now is that she will not lay in her nesting box. We have been finding them out in her run on the ground. Her cycle is still very inconsistent, so we can't really leave her shut in her coop until she lays. The coop is much larger than we need for the 5 birds to accommodate future additions, but it's been pretty hot so far this summer and we would feel too cruel shutting her in there. We have also tried moving an egg into one of the nesting boxes and every morning when we got to check it has been kicked out of the box and nearly to the door of the coop by either her or one of the other hens. They are all due to start laying within the week and we would love some suggestions on how to get them all laying in their boxes before we are hunting down 5 eggs every day.

Thank you!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

This is not unusual, nor grounds for any panic - it's actually pretty much perfectly normal for birds who are just starting to lay. Right now, the systems are just getting the hang of working together in all the moving parts that it takes to produce an egg - and part of the process is the hen figuring out just what the heck is going on and how she can have some control over things.
What are your nest boxes like? Have you got any "bait" (golf balls, wooden eggs, etc.) in the boxes to tell the birds what they are for? Have you seen her (or any of the birds) investigating the boxes?

 

[Ashley Pederson]

We have three 12"x12"x12" nesting boxes built out of wood on the floor of their coop with an access door that opens from the side to retrieve eggs. We tried leaving one of her real eggs in one of the boxes as bait, but it kept getting kicked out and across the coop. I have seen them investigating the boxes and my gold laced Wyandotte has been caught sleeping in one at night rather than on the perches with the other ladies. I've seen ceramic eggs at the store we purchase their feed from. Would purchasing one of those for each box work as bait?

 

[Ashley Pederson]

We were a bit put off of using the ceramic eggs and tried her eggs because the ceramics are about twice the size of her baby eggs at the moment. We may be overestimating their intelligence though...

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

We were a bit put off of using the ceramic eggs and tried her eggs because the ceramics are about twice the size of her baby eggs at the moment. We may be overestimating their intelligence though...

Using real eggs is not the best idea - the longer those eggs are in the nest to lure the birds the more chance there is that something will happen resulting in a broken egg. Given the current temps, those eggs will not stay pleasant for long and can become little stink bombs. If an egg does become broken, that opens the door to the development of an egg eating problem, not the way you want to start off a group of brand new laying birds. If the size (it really does not matter to them, I assure you) is an issue to you, use golf balls.

 

[aart]

Ditto OGM.

You might also want to be sure the front of the nest is about 4" high, helps keep the bedding and the eggs where they belong.

I used fake eggs and/or golf balls, but not in all the nests......
......one of my newly laying pullets refused to use the nest until I took the fake egg out of it.

New layers can be quite goofy acting, they don't know what they are doing at first and can be confused and anxious, it can take up to a month or so before they get it all figured out. Putting some fake eggs or golf balls in the nest might help show them where to lay. They may scratch around in the nests for weeks before laying. Meanwhile, eggs everywhere, some of them can be rather funky looking, soft or thin shelled, huge double yolked eggs.

 

[Ashley Pederson]

Thank you all for your advice. I will pick up some of the ceramic eggs to put in a couple of the boxes to try. A second chicken laid her first egg this morning. I will also talk to my carpenter (hubby) about adding a higher lip to the nesting boxes to see if that helps.

 

[KJBarclay]

We have three 12"x12"x12" nesting boxes built out of wood on the floor of their coop with an access door that opens from the side to retrieve eggs. We tried leaving one of her real eggs in one of the boxes as bait, but it kept getting kicked out and across the coop. I have seen them investigating the boxes and my gold laced Wyandotte has been caught sleeping in one at night rather than on the perches with the other ladies. I've seen ceramic eggs at the store we purchase their feed from. Would purchasing one of those for each box work as bait?

My question is, if they don't really investigate the nest box they aren't going to see any bait egg. I put the one who is laying in the nest box probably 10 times, once I even put the roost bar up so she couldn't get out. That didn't work either. She lays in a corner after kicking all the pine shavings away. Don't want the others to do that when they start laying. What can I do now?

 

[aart]

How long has she been laying?
Putting them in there once is ok, but.....
locking her in the nest may have turned her off of it.
You may just have to be patient..you could block the corner where she's laying.

 

[KJBarclay]

How long has she been laying?
Putting them in there once is ok, but.....
locking her in the nest may have turned her off of it.
You may just have to be patient..you could block the corner where she's laying.

She's only been laying for 7 days. My husband thinks it's too light by the boxes too.