Hens not laying in nest

[Akpheng]

Can anyone tell me why a hen would not lay her eggs in the nest? Everyday when I make my rounds I find a couple eggs just laying about by the feed or water bowl. I have seven hens and a rooster in the coop. I also have ten nest box. 2 nest box have eggs in them.

 

[Tressa27884]

Could be any number of reasons. How old are your hens? My hens have a favorite nesting box, and will wait and cackle at each other if they want to lay and another hen is in that box. I have 12 hens and six nesting boxes and yet they only want to lay in one or two of them. If they're young - it may be that they just haven't figured it out yet. Lastly I'd say that if the nesting boxes aren't clean or have a nesting material your girls don't like, they'll find another place to deposit their eggs. Every once in awhile I'll find an egg in an odd place - but more often than not the girls now lay where they're supposed to. Good luck.

 

[Akpheng]

All my hens are 7+ months old. This is their first time laying in this coop. They have been in this coop for three weeks. I been collecting the eggs and placing them in a nest. There is a total of 16 eggs in there. Now im hoping one of them will decide to set. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[Akpheng]

I dont know how true this is but the guy i bought some hens from gave me some advice on how to get hens to set on her batch of eggs. He said to lock the hen up in her nest box. And out of boredom she will eventually set. Anyone tried this? What do you guys think?

 

[Tressa27884]

Are you talking about making her broody or just getting her to lay in the coop? When my girls started laying I put golf balls in the nesting boxes. The fact that there are old eggs in there may have them not wanting to go in there. Try golf balls. If you're trying to get your hen to go broody - I don't think there is anything you can do. I've been trying for months, and everybody tells me it's not possible to 'make' a hen go broody....