Moving the nest box after first eggs...

[llnmaw]

Could this work? My girls are getting close (I think?? I hope???!) to laying and we never built the external nest boxes...cuz we had lots of time...boy how time flies! I cannot get the box built on my own and hubs can't help for a couple of weeks or so. So I'm wondering if I create a nest area to give them a place to lay and then put the external box in...will there be mutiny and the eggs will always be in the wrong spot? For space concerns we do need the external box...so not doing is not an option. I plan to create the temporary next area in the exact spot that we will open the coop up for the external one, only obviously inside the coop for now.

As a side question, I'm suspect of one chicken in particular of being close to laying because I think she is doing the squat. Is the egg squat when they lay down when I reach down to pet or catch? She just started this yesterday but I really noticed it today as I've had to catch her several times to put her back in the pen

) She has also been in and out of the coop quite a bit over the past few days, scratching around and just spending time in there. They are never in their coop during the day. Maybe just a new habit..or pending egg? She is only 17 weeks and does not have particularly red face/wattles/comb. Maybe I'm getting my hopes up??

Thanks! I'm so super over the top excited about our first egg.....I know you get it! Sadly, if she is close, we may actually be out of town when it happens. It seems akin to missing my babes first word or step.....

~L.

 

[dianaross77]

Mine didn't seem to mind where their nest box (cardboard box) ended up. Just put a dummy egg in the spot where you want them to lay. A golf ball, plastic easter egg, fake egg from the craft store. We use my 5 year old's fake wooden eggs we got from kmart in the toy section. I've have heard about the squat but have never seen it done. My girls seemed to be practicing the egg song for a while before they started to lay. You can check their vents too. If you flip them over and take a look, the vent of a hen ready to lay or laying will be moist looking. Happy waiting!

 

[llnmaw]

Thanks!

So you are saying you moved your nest box after they started laying and as long as you gave them an indicator of where you wanted them to lay...they did without issue?

I knew about the dummy egg/decoy thing but keep hearing about how chickens are creatures of habit and seem to balk at change. Didn't want to create a problem....

~L.

 

[dianaross77]

I added a new one, took the old one away, moved the new one. They didn't care as long as the dummy egg stayed in. I took it out because my hen was trying to go broody on it and the next day had eggs on the floor again!