Girls are not happy with my arrangement for their laying box (help?)

[FowlLanguage]

I have 2 turkens and a silver-laced Wyandotte ready to start droppin' 'em. I bought a bale of straw today and put some in their laying box. At first they didn't mind, but a little while later, every last bit of straw was out of the box and spread astonishingly even over the the ground of their enclosure, as if they were tired of bare dirt and wanted some decent carpeting (they had grass, but their inner food critics defeated their inner interior decorators.) Anyway, as of right now, the new straw remains in its designated area, but I know chickens; when they do something that makes you shake your head and chuckle, another headshake and chuckle is inevitable. So, my fellow fowlers, what solution would you recommend? I'm not ready for muddy eggs.

 

[Tala]

scratching around in the nest box is usually a sign that they are getting close to laying

I've had nest boxes with sand in them, and one with an old welcome mat in the bottom, pine sawdust bedding material in several nests, and right now they are laying on dried out corn stalk leaves. Unless your run is muddy, the eggs shouldn't automatically be muddy too. (The mud comes from their feet) If you have shavings or something inside the coop that they have to walk over to get to the next box it will probably keep the eggs fairly clean. They may "settle down" somewhat and leave the straw in it's proper place once they get the hang of laying. Perhaps they just need to grow up a bit more.

 

[7L Farm]

I agree with Tala. Time will fix the problem. When their young they get in the boxes because their curious they scratch around looking for bugs or whatever. Mine would scratch the fake eggs out I'd go in & put them back. Now that their laying they use the boxes for one thing to lay eggs.

 

[wingsofglory]

Only one flock I had refused to leave the straw in the nest. They'd throw it all out. The nest had a 5" lip across the front, so they had to lift each piece out. Took awhile. I gave up and put in sand.

This flock I am going to make the roll away boxes from plywood and they have fake grass carpet or commercial nest box pads in them so the egg rolls down the incline to the soft bumper under the curtain.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I use pine shavings in my nestboxes. The girls love it.