Getting them to use the next boxes

[dodgewoman]

My chickens just started laying last week. They have 4 nest boxes to share, everything I read said they will. Currently they are laying in the corners of the coop! I'm afraid the eggs will get squished. Plus it's a pain to stick my head in and try to find them(we have a very low profile door). How can I encourage them to use the boxes? oh and today my daughter found an egg in the woods behind the coop. I guess that is common, I didn't realize that! Thanks!

 

[chickenlover89]

you can buy ceramic eggs and put them in the nesting boxes, or you could put golf balls in the nesting boxes

 

[CindyJeann]

I'm a big fan of golf balls... The chickens think they are eggs but I don't. I was using the ceramic eggs but they look so real. I lost several eggs because I would pick up what I was sure was a fake egg and tap it against the hen house wall to make sure.

 

[chickenlover89]

that's upsetting! yeah golf balls are a good idea!

 

[vannaHaines]

I use golf balls. I placed a small clutch of 3 golf balls in each nest box. Strangely, my currently laying hens seem to prefer one box to the other....go figure lol

 

[dodgewoman]

Golf balls are cheap and easy to find too! Doesn't matter if they are white? How long do you leave them there. Indefinitely or just when they start using the boxes regularly? Going to find some cheap golf balls then

 

[Red Barn Farms]

I used plastic eggs bought after Easter at 75% off original price. I'm wondering now if they might look twice at that neon purple egg before they lay in the same box,

It is always a good idea to make sure your nest boxes are close to ground level as possible and your roost is higher than the boxes. Just a suggestion.

Sometimes chickens can be very stubborn when it comes to where they want to lay. Make sure the boxes look appealing by having them someplace darker and quite. A dark corner is always a good location. Use the fake eggs. The eggs will give them the idea that this might be a good place to lay too! Most hens lay in the early hours of the day so it might be best to keep them confined until the time egg laying is normally over. Make sure the nest boxes are comfy and cozy inside with fluffy straw or pine shavings. I have even supplied my nest boxes with leaves in the Autumn months. You can add material over the entrance of the boxes to darken the area even more.

Here is the type of homemade hen nest boxes we use at Red Barn Farms







To these we add either new straw in the spring and summer months. When Winter arrives it's time for a good cleaning and the bedding is then replaced with dead dried leaves. Also we add as a base a layer of indoor-outdoor carpeting underneath the shavings, straw or leaves.

 

[dodgewoman]

Well my coop is on the smaller side. The roost in there is def. higher than the boxes. The boxes are off to one whole side and level with the bottom of the coop where they are currently laying in the corners. I did change the bedding up recently to make it more appealing to them.

 

[Tody 65]

After they lay their first egg and know what they look like I put plactic a plactic brown egg in the nest and that seemed to help

 

[CindyJeann]

I have 3 or 4 golf balls in every nest and I keep them there all the time. Snakes can't tell golf balls from eggs either.