Hens not using nesting boxes after hatching chicks

[J Coley]

Hi!
I have 5 - one year old silkies who all went broody at one time or another for the past 4 months. After successfully breaking them, they all went broody again. I decided to just let them all sit on eggs, and successfully hatched 8 chicks. 4 that are about 2 months old, and 4 that are 6 weeks old. The hens just started laying eggs again for the past 2 weeks. They lay everywhere but in the nesting boxes. They always layed their eggs in the nesting boxes prior to hatching the chicks. They act like they don’t remember where they should lay!
The nesting boxes are clean, and they didn’t use the boxes for hatching the eggs - I had moved them to a brooder box.
Any idea what is going on?
TIA!

 

[50-45-1]

Do you have fake eggs in your nest boxes?
No need to buy the expensive ceramic ones in the farm Stores.
I use golf balls.
Some people use those plastic eggs for kids at Easter, filled with sand and super glued closed.
Rocks shaped like eggs.
Anything that will make it appear to the hens that it's a safe place to lay eggs, because somebody else used it.

 

[J Coley]

Do you have fake eggs in your nest boxes?
No need to buy the expensive ceramic ones in the farm Stores.
I use golf balls.
Some people use those plastic eggs for kids at Easter, filled with sand and super glued closed.
Rocks shaped like eggs.
Anything that will make it appear to the hens that it's a safe place to lay eggs, because somebody else used it.

I do have fake eggs in there!

 

[Ridgerunner]

The hens just started laying eggs again for the past 2 weeks. They lay everywhere but in the nesting boxes.

Are they dropping them at random while walking around or are you finding them in the same spot every time, as if they have decided that is where their nest should be? Are you finding those eggs in the coop or run? How many of the five hens are laying? Are any laying in the nests? Have all of the hens stopped taking care of the chicks or are all of the chicks weaned and on their own? I assume they are sleeping in the same coop where you want them to lay.

Without knowing your set-up or which hens are laying and where, my thought would be to move the chicks and any hens not laying out of the coop each morning and leave the laying hens locked in the coop until they lay or at least until later in the day.

they didn’t use the boxes for hatching the eggs - I had moved them to a brooder box.

That's a common practice on here. I don't do it that way, I let them hatch where they lay. I don't know if that had anything to do with it, especially since it was all five hatching the eggs and raising the chicks.

 

[J Coley]

Are they dropping them at random while walking around or are you finding them in the same spot every time, as if they have decided that is where their nest should be? Are you finding those eggs in the coop or run? How many of the five hens are laying? Are any laying in the nests? Have all of the hens stopped taking care of the chicks or are all of the chicks weaned and on their own? I assume they are sleeping in the same coop where you want them to lay.

Without knowing your set-up or which hens are laying and where, my thought would be to move the chicks and any hens not laying out of the coop each morning and leave the laying hens locked in the coop until they lay or at least until later in the day.


That's a common practice on here. I don't do it that way, I let them hatch where they lay. I don't know if that had anything to do with it, especially since it was all five hatching the eggs and raising the chicks.

I have found eggs in the run, in the coop under the ladder that goes to the nesting boxes and other random places in the coop. I have only found one egg in a nest box. All 5 are laying now, I think the chicks are weaned, the hens seem to be done raising them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

That sounds more like pullets just coming into lay, not hens that have laid before. It sounds like most of them are no longer able to manage when the egg is coming if they are just dropping them at random. I've never seen that with mature hens, just pullets coming into lay. I'd be kind of frustrated about now.

If they can't tell when an egg is coming I don't see a fix. I'd try locking them in the coop only to see if that will encourage them to use the nests. I don't know what else to suggest.