Golf balls in nest boxes for pullets?

[Jessie and Kade]

Thanks the golf balls are working do you all just leave your "fake eggs" in the nest boxes forever or once they start you remove them? They have started to push the balls out of the nest during the day after I collect eggs so do they still "need" them??

 

[RWise]

I leave them in all the time, 1-3 per nest, not painted, my purpose is if a snake comes in to steel the eggs it will eat a golf ball and never return. I would rather loose a golf ball now and then than have a snake problem. The girls have chosen a nest with 3 balls for their main nest and a nest with only 1 for overflow (would you get off my nest!)

 

[wayneclea]

I tried a golf ball in the nest, and even a second one, after the first one vanished.
I never figured out where they got to, no sign of them anyplace.
Only one egg got laid on the floor, all the rest in nest boxes.
At first, I did not know who was laying eggs, but it turned out Red was the only one, till Goldie finally laid her first egg.
and, hers are slightly lighter in color. My Australorp has yet to lay an egg.
Most of the time, it is two eggs in same nest, once in a while, one in each nest.
I hope to raise more chicks this spring, so I'll have more eggs, and another roo. Mine escaped, and fried himself in the donkey pen, sad to say.
And he was very protective of his girls. Defended them from the old hens, who finally got rehomed.

It has been an experience raising chicks. My first time ever...

 

[Jessie and Kade]

Thanks everyone my girls have been using the nest boxes now since I first put the golf balls back guess in the spring I will have to buy hubby some new good balls lol as I stole his lol!!

 

[MusiGal]

It's interesting. My hens (pullets) don't seem to care a flip about the golf balls. They've been laying for 2 weeks now and they go to a corner of the coop (underneath the boxes) and lay there. I regularly find 3 eggs a day there. I put a golf ball in each of the 3 nesting boxes and I can see where one of them actually went in one of the boxes and burrowed out an area and even pushed the golf ball out, but not a single egg has been laid in any of those boxes thus far. Chickens sure are funny creatures! I'll keep trying and maybe they'll get it. Maybe I need to go to Michael's or some such place to get a wooden "egg" for each box. I have 5, possibly 6 hens (we're still debating about our Golden Laced Polish...LOL) and only 3 of them seem to be laying right now. Enjoying this adventure!

 

[AmateurChickie]

Our chooks used to lay wherever they felt like it, so I put a golf ball in the one of the boxes, they lay more in the boxes, but still lay wherever. They also go broody in the boxes now, they never really did that before. Although a couple have started to lay under the boxes instead of in them lol

 

[MusiGal]

Okay, you all are not going to believe this...or maybe you will. Today, when I got home from work, I went out to check for eggs. We had FOUR today!! WooHoo. AAAAAANNNNNDDDD...one was in a nesting box!

WooHoo! This was the first time we got four eggs and the first time one was in a nesting box. I had the golf balls in each box as before and when I was looking, I started on the opposite end from where they usually lay. Once I got to the box over the place they usually lay, I found an egg in it and NO GOLF BALL. This is when I usually go to the back of the coop and open the clean out door...so I can see better and this is what I found in the place they normally lay.


THREE EGGS....And a GOLF BALL! How fun! Can't wait to see what I find tomorrow!!

 

[aggiemae]

It's always harder to get pullets to go into the nest box when you don't have older hens around using it!

Since pullets are not accustom to using the coop for anything but sleeping and they tend to be skittish around the older hens at first too I put a 12x12 shipping box in the run right after I get the first egg and seldom get eggs on the ground. I find that they are all laying in the coop nest box in a week or two.

 

[MusiGal]

Okay, I'm just giving up...they're going to lay where they're going to lay, apparently. Today, my Easter Egger finally laid her first egg. I got home this afternoon and checked the nesting boxes and they've all but knocked every bit of bedding out of the boxes, the golf balls are still in each box AND there were three eggs on the floor of the coop underneath the nest box on the opposite end as they had been laying! Go figure.

So I took those three (including my Easter Egger's blue egg) and a couple of hours later, I had two more in the same spot. So all five of them laid in the same spot opposite of where they had been laying. My husband suggested putting more bedding into the nest boxes again and then putting a brick in the two spots they've been laying. Do you all think that will work? Or am I stuck with whatever they've been doing since it's been about three weeks? I'm good either way at this point.

Thanks!

 

[jetdog]

Mine are laying in the boxes but they were digging out all the bedding, I added a piece of 1x3 piece of pine to the front of the box to make it taller and it did the trick.