Hens are afraid of the laying box?

[Liven42day]

Hi, I'm new to raising chickens, we have 23 hens and 1 rooster (it just worked out that way), the oldest group are 17 weeks and just started squatting for me, the younger girls are 15 weeks. We bought a used roll away nesting box and my hens seem afraid of it, I have yet to see one of them in it and have yet to clean poop off from it, it's been in their coop for a week and a half now. They have to walk past it to roost every night. Anything I should do? Put straw in it even though your not supposed to?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

They won't go into them until they are about to start laying. There shouldn't be any poop in them, that would mean they are sleeping in them. Put some fake ceramic eggs in a few boxes to show them it's safe.

 

[Ayam onthe Farm]

Give it time, they will figure it out.

 

[ChickenMammX4]

Looking at your pics I notice the narrow perch set at an angle on the front of the nest box. I know when we first set up the nestboxes there was a narrow perch on ours. The hens wouldn't hop up there. One of the things we changed was make that perch wider for them. It worked.

Just a thought.

 

[aart]

Agrees on the wider perch....and is it stable?
Might lose the 'curtains' too.
You may have to add bedding at first, with fake eggs,
then slowly remove both bedding and fakies.

 

[Liven42day]

I added bedding today and two 5 gallon buckets screwed into the wall, everything is solid, I had 2x4's in there for roosting and noone wanted to jump up on them but that was 2 months ago, I'll try that tomorrow after work. I'm so excited I'm about to get my first egg!!!

 

[GC-Raptor]

I agree with aart on the curtains. Might want to fold them up, so they can see inside. GC

 

[aart]

and two 5 gallon buckets screwed into the wall

What are the buckets for?
If you want them to use the metal nests, don't offer other nests.

Be patient, it can take up to a month or so for things to smooth out with new layer.
Meanwhile, eggs everywhere, some of them can be rather funky looking, soft or thin shelled, huge double yolked eggs.

 

[Abriana]

Put golf balls, ceramic eggs, or other round things in the nesting box because when they see egg (or egg-like things) they want to lay there too. My pullets started laying about a month ago, and just stopped sleeping in the nesting boxes and graduated to roosting bars. If they want to sleep in the nesting box, just let them. They will grow out of it. If you don't want them in the nesting box because they get them poopy, you can block them off. They will lay and roost when they are ready.

 

[Liven42day]

I put the 5 gallon bucket in, I took one out now, because I have a huge hen and she won't fit in the nesting boxes. We got our first egg Saturday (and one everyday since) on top of a bale of hay, I guess they will figure it out. That wooden purch can be moved up to block the boxes off at night time to keep the sleepers out of there, I leave it down all the time. I put a magnet on each set of curtains to hold them open, I put some of my hens on the nesting bar so they can check out the boxes.