my chickens keep moving the hay out of the nesting boxes...

[sixty7x]

my hens pulled out all the hay from their box almost everyday. Then i put some greens(broccoli) and dried leaves and they left it alone. Then I got my first egg last wednesday and all the hay was gone and the egg was just sitting there on the plywood floor. I put hay back in and they've since made a perfect round nest.

 

[Michigan Transplant]

Don't know what I did right but the boxes that I used for the hens to lay their eggs in are the old plastic milk crates. Got some from a grocery store where I used to live. Seems the girls like the red ones the best. I have 4 about 4 foot off the ground and 4 about a foot off the ground. Then there are 4 more on platforms about 3 foot off the ground. They LOVE the ones that are 4 foot off the ground. Now that it is getting colder they are sleeping in some of them, I have noticed large amounts of poop daily in a few of them. Still getting 20 eggs a day out of 24 RIR. The Silver Campines have stopped laying eggs. The Silvers are10 months old and the RIRs are 8 months old. This is my first venture into raising chickens.
One question: I would like to have my RIR hatch their own eggs and was wondering what time of year is best to start letting them sit on eggs to hatch them? Don't want the babies to freeze so was thinking more like March or April.

 

[swimmer]

Ours would kick them out too. I just kept piling in the straw and one day they stopped. Guess they got it just right.

 

[tuesdays chicks]

I didn't have trouble with the hay being thrown out until I added chicks to the flock, I'm guessing if they are too young to lay they like to scratch in it, now that I have the mixed flock I'm going through a lot more, so I'll put hay in 1 box with the fake egg in it.