Hens all laying in same nest box?

[BannieMomma]

Hi there everyone,
Im new here, and I just had a quick question..
I have my bannies in two dog kennels that I connected together (not dog crates..you know..the portable chain link fences..)
anyways..I justh ave them in this temporarily until I move into our new house..I have the nest boxes ,5, on a stand with a little ladder going up to it..
three boxes have eggs in them, and the chickens are laying..
Some of the other hens are laying in the other ones nest..

So what Im saying is, I have 2 or 3 bitties hatch every day out of the same nest from different chickens..
Is this normal? Why dont they use one of the other empty boxes?
Thanks,
Kate

 

[justusnak]

chickens will find the "favorite" nest, and will all want to lay there. Unless you have a broody hen in the nest, I wouldn't worry. There are times when I get 2 hens in one nest at the same time, laying. Its sorta funny to watch one hen...pace back and forth, peeping in the nest, waiting on the first hen to finish. I dont know why they would do this.....we have 11 hens, and 7 boxes....WAY more than needed. They just like a select few of them.

 

[bigzio]

BannieMomma, it's just to funny how much one chicken will follow what another one does. While one nest for every 4 hens is the proper formula, I assure you that the hens would rather stand in line singing for that special nest than just take a vacant one and go lay their egg.

It moves from nest to nest, depending on where they want to lay today. I have some nests that go unused for weeks at a time and then all of a sudden, that's the one with eggs in! Gotta love those pretty hennies.

bigzio

I'm sorry, Welcome to BYC!

 

[tffstpp]

Ha, I have 25 nest boxes and wouldn't you know that my girls only use about 5 of them.

 

[Critter Crazy]

out of the 16 boxes i have only 3 get used. I always have a huge pile in one box, and two smaller piles in the other. Make sit easiert o collect all the eggs!

 

[CarriBrown]

I have four boxes and they'd rather lay where ever they happen to be when the egg pops out!

 

[BannieMomma]

Thanks for the replies everyone!