My chickens wont lay in the nesting box

[Eva2020]

I have 4 hens, no roosters. We have an omlet chicken coop. It has a community nest box, but the main area is covered with plastic. My girls have been laying for a few months. I put ping pong balls in the nesting box so they knew where to lay, and a couple weeks ago I took them out since all the girls were laying in the nesting box. Then, my RIR started laying in the regular coop area, and in an omlet the coop area is basically all roosts (you can look it up to see what I mean). I put the ping pong balls back in the nesting box, but she is still laying in the main coop area, while her 3 sisters were laying in the nesting box. We never had any problems with this before I took the ping pong balls out. This morning, my ameraucana also laid in the coop. Her egg had a little crack in it, thankfully the crack was pointing down so no one tasted the egg. Does anyone know why this might be happening? I am confused since they all used to lay in the nesting box, and I can't seem to get them to lay there.

 

[Starburst]

I have 4 hens, no roosters. We have an omlet chicken coop. It has a community nest box, but the main area is covered with plastic. My girls have been laying for a few months. I put ping pong balls in the nesting box so they knew where to lay, and a couple weeks ago I took them out since all the girls were laying in the nesting box. Then, my RIR started laying in the regular coop area, and in an omlet the coop area is basically all roosts (you can look it up to see what I mean). I put the ping pong balls back in the nesting box, but she is still laying in the main coop area, while her 3 sisters were laying in the nesting box. We never had any problems with this before I took the ping pong balls out. This morning, my ameraucana also laid in the coop. Her egg had a little crack in it, thankfully the crack was pointing down so no one tasted the egg. Does anyone know why this might be happening? I am confused since they all used to lay in the nesting box, and I can't seem to get them to lay there.

Hmm...that is odd. Is it possible for you to get a picture of your set up? Also, what type of nesting material do you use? Do you know if your RIR has been experiencing any stress recently, or trauma in the nesting box area? She may have decided not to lay in the nesting boxes because she was being disturbed. Your RIR may have started laying on the coop floor for a few reasons, (a) there were several other hens in the nesting area when she needed to lay, so she just laid on the coop floor, (b) She was disturbed while in the nesting box, and now refuses to go back there, preferring to lay on the coop floor. (c) She noticed that the ping pong balls were gone and didn't like the change, so she started laying on the coop floor. (d) She noticed the ping pong balls weren't there and thought something along the lines of, Oh, looks like the others don't think this is a good laying spot, or maybe something is going to steal all the eggs! Better lay somewhere else. (e) Is your nesting material comfortable and clean? She may have not liked laying in there if it became dirty, or if you changed something up with the nesting area.
There are so many other reasons why this may be. As for your Ameraucana, she most likely noticed your RIR was laying on the coop floor and decided to follow suit.
I honestly can't tell you exactly why she started laying on the coop floor, these are just guesses. If you notice your girl trying to lay on the floor, you might try gently putting her in the nesting space, but this may be a little risky. You don't want to upset her even more! She also just might take a little time to break her habit of laying on the floor and go back to laying in the nest.
Hopefully, some more people will be able to help you with better advice than my ramblings.
Regardless, this must be very confusing and frustrating for you, I hope you'll get it figured out soon!

 

[Eva2020]

Thank you! We had a sort of chopped straw material in the nesting box originally but we ran out of those so now I just have shavings in there. However, she stopped laying in the nesting box before we switched the material. I can get a picture later but here is a picture from google, ours looks just like this, there is a little door between the main area and the nesting box. Our RIR has always been the first to lay in the morning (and still is), while the other chickens lay later in the morning.

 

[Eva2020]

Update- all of the other girls are back to laying in the nesting box, but Rosie (the one who won't lay in the nesting box) is still laying in the coop.

 

[Eva2020]

She laid in the nesting box today!!! Hopefully she keeps it up