My four, one-year-old hens have been laying in two milk crates on their sides, on top of concrete blocks (also on their sides). My other five hens just started laying a few weeks ago, so I made two more boxes out of office crates and secured them to the top of the milk crates. I have golf balls in all boxes. None of the hens have gone up to the top layer of boxes to lay in them. Since we have nine hens, I know they need three or four boxes, so I was hoping they would use the top row. Any ideas? My set up looks a lot like this, only the bottom row are sitting on concrete blocks laying on their sides. Maybe the top boxes are too high? I have a perch as well. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_tiXC-itfl0k/S-K4GQq3WVI/AAAAAAAAAbY/dbSPcqVHWB8/s1600/013.JPG
Looks good to me! The rule of thumb is usualy given on BYC as one nest to 4 hens. Honestly, if the eggs are going into the nests and they seem happy, I don't know that I'd change anything. Until recently I had 9 hens and 5 nests; there used to be more hens. They usuallly laid in two of them. Sometimes they would switch around, but still usually used only two. If they wanted to lay somewhere new, it was as likely to be in a corner of the coop as another nest. It;s very cmmon for them to have a favorite or two, and the rest go unused.
place some fake eggs (wooden or ceramic) or even golf balls in the nests you want them to start using- they'll check it out and think "somebody else thinks this is a good place to lay- maybe I will too".
X2 - if/when they feel the need for more laying space they will seek out other places to lay and may start to investigate the new boxes. But if you are not having a problem with eggs turning up on the floor, etc and they are happy sharing those two boxes I don't see a problem. Even with 9 hens, two boxes is not necessarily insufficient.
I am actually not positive that all are laying in the boxes... I am not sure if all the hens (out of the young five) are laying yet. I seem to be getting five to six eggs a day. Does that seem low for 9 hens? As I said, some of the young possibly are not laying yet.
