how to get a chicken to lay in my nesting boxes.

[marvun22]

i bought 2 triplex nesting boxes from mypetchicken.com. but my chickens refuse to lay in them. i've put them about everywhere. i've put golf balls in them. i've showed them it. i don't think they're too big. advice would be appreciated. if they don't lay in the nesting boxes i would have wasted $70 on nothing. my laying chickens are buff orpingtons.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Are you sure they are laying? If so, lock them inside the coop for a few days (the coop, not the run), and see if anyone lays anyway. If you see some eggs, move them to nestbox if not there already. They will eventually catch on, don't worry.

 

[marvun22]

yes they are laying. i know were they lay. and mine have my whole farm to free range in during the day.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The fake eggs help but once they start to lay somewhere else, well, they have a bad habit that needs to be broken. If you know where they are laying you've got a head start on the solution, but it may not be real easy.

If you can at all, lock them in the coop or coop and run until they lay. In the meantime take the eggs from the nest you don't want them to lay in. I've done this a few times and they usually learn where you want them to lay in about a week. Usually. Some hens are more stubborn than others.

I've also had hens that would lay on the floor of the coop. I'm not talking about a pullet just starting to lay. Those are liable to drop an egg anywhere. I'm talking about hens that make a nest in a certain spot on the coop floor every day. I'd watch them and when they settle down in their nest on the floor to lay, I'd catch them and lock them in the nest box until they lay the egg. Usually that takes about a half hour but I had one hen that took 3 hours. Most if the time I only had to do that once for them to catch on, but for one hen I had to do it two days in a row. That was the same hen that took three hours to lay the egg but she's spend that much time on the nest every day anyway.

I don't know if you can get anything out of this that can help you. Your set-up may be different enough from mine that none of this can work for you. Good luck!

 

[TNOTV]

we keep straw in our barn and had hens laying in the straw instead of the nesting boxes we disturded the nest but they continued to go back to the barn to break it we have left em in their coop/run for the last 3 days and we have had eggs in the nesting boxes everyday gonna keep em locked up a few more days hopefully that breaks em good luck