my chicken is broken. nest box issues!

cupman

Songster
8 Years
Apr 12, 2011
1,543
156
171
Portland, OR
I have a white leghorn, she is my first layer and she has had a heck of a time laying eggs in the nesting boxes. When I box her in the run she does a fine job of hopping up in the boxes and laying an egg, when I leave the door open she paces around the run and walks around outside the run frantically, shes been out there for 2 hours just circling the coop, I know she has an egg she just needs to plop out but she won't do it. I'd like to be able to keep the door open all day so she can free range and come back to lay in the boxes but it seems as soon as she isn't trapped in the run she forgets to keep laying in the nesting boxes.

The other ones figure it out after I box them in the run, but this one just won't have any of it. I am running out of ideas with her. I've even trapped her in with another layer so she could learn from her, and she does, until I open the run door, then the next day she's all confused again. Do I just need to trap her in for a week or something?
 
Ahh yeah, kind of a hassle because I like to let the others free range and then if I lock her up the others won't have access to the boxes. Ohh well, I'll figure something out. It's just funny, I have been monitoring the boxes all day waiting for the white leghorn to lay, and I discover one of my hens who has never laid before using the nest boxes. Why is it so hard for whitey! I ended up finding the white leghorns egg behind a tree next to the coop, back to locking her up I suppose.
 
Quote:
Yeah it's a hassle but whenever my egg production drops and I'm not sure why, everybody goes on lockdown.

Right now I have a few of my younger hens that insist on laying in the older birds coop. Doesn't matter to me, as long as they are using a box. Still kinda funny to see all those birds making a beeline for the older coop the minute I let them out of their own coop.
 

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