My chickens STILL won't lay eggs in the nest boxes. Any suggestions?

[yankeefan]

SUCCESS ! ! ! I have taken the first egg laid in a nest box !!

I used two old plastic milk crates, turned on their sides as makeshift temporary nest boxes. I fastened a 1"x4" board to the front opening and threw some straw inside them, then placed them on top of a couple of patio blocks in the coop.

I checked the coop today when I got home and to my pleasant surprise, there were eggs in the box that is darkest. I didn't try to darken the boxes, but the one in the corner is a bit more secluded.

Thanks to all of you for your help. I was hoping that the chickens were just gonna "get it" eventually. But with a little help, I think we're on the right track.

 

[myramelinda]

I have 6 chickens and 4 nesting boxes filled with pine shavings and colorful plastic easter eggs.....they go up the ladder into the coop and everyone of them lay in the first box....it is dark in the coop but it amazes me to go out in the mornings and find 3-4 eggs in the same nest...."go figure!"...

 

[uffdaa]

Everyone's coop and birds are unique, so what I share, I don't offer as axioms or laws, merely some observations.

First, the nesting boxes for beginners get used more quickly and more often if they are positioned lower to the floor. Mine are just raised on a concrete block or two, That's it. Purely my experience, but the pullets don't "get" jumping up to lay an egg right away. I get a few who lay on the floor for a week or two, just because I don't believe they themselves even realize they are laying egg. Who knows what is in a chicken's mind. But with the low boxes, they catch on very, very quickly.

Second observation. A long time ago, I noticed that some boxes just never got used. I used to wonder why. I know they love piling up a clutch, I got that, but why build the clutch in one box over another? Many years ago, it dawned on me that my grandmother, who kept hens from 1890's in the 1950's and who was instrumental teaching me an awful lot about the birds, used to put a burlap flap or two over the boxes. Since most traditional hen houses face south, to maximize the sunlight and solar heating in winter, she used to say, "they like their privacy and some hens will "linger" for awhile". I remembered her saying that, so I experimented in making the boxes darker, and turned one away from the light, making it easily the darkest box. Sure enough, the next day or two EVERY hen in that pen laid in the dark box.

I re-oriented the same box toward the light and turned a different box away from the light, making it the dark box. Bingo. Every hen, within two days, switched right over to the dark box. Chickens cannot talk so they cannot speak to us about such things. We have to watch, observe and take note of what their behaviors are "telling us".

This has been such a good answer for me to read! I have been panicking because I thought perhaps I was just doing everything wrong. My hens are just now turning 22 weeks old and a few of them have started to lay eggs. I was panicking because they have been laying them under the roost. So I was worried that perhaps they are all going to do that, but I have rearranged my coop so that the food and water are well away from the nest boxes, and I have put some fabric partially over the openings to the nest boxes, as well as fake eggs inside the nest boxes, to see if perhaps it will coax them into the boxes to lay. Crossing my fingers!!!! Thanks for such valuable information!

 

[Peppercorngal]

Chickens are wonderful and curious creatures. I have 40 hens and 36 nesting boxes. They like their boxes and have used them to lay in for years. I have a little "brooder" shed that (because our chicken feed/straw shed burned down) I've had to store feed and straw in lately. The girls were going crazy wanting in the brooder, so one day I just let em in! They are now taking turns laying on top of a 1/2 bale of straw! There is one on the "nest" and one waiting almost all day! I was working out there today and watched them for hours! I found 8 eggs in this straw nest today. Just goes to show you they will do what they want, where they want and when they want! I love my girls!