Nest box curtain material

[TwoCrows]

Nope, unfortunately she has had a thing about putting eggs in weird places since she first started laying several weeks ago. First I tried adding a new, curtain-less box in an area where I was finding little pullet eggs in the shavings; the curtains were a second step.

I thought the curtains would work faster than this because she and another pullet have been escaping past me when I go in/out and they very deliberately look for any awful dark hole they can squeeze into - more than once I've had to grab their little tails just as they're about to dart into something bad. A few times they've slipped past when it was too muddy for me to keep up so I grabbed my alpha roo and launched him out the door after them (which did actually work; he's a smart boy). One of those two pullets is now laying in the curtained box and seems less inclined to running off...really hoping the other one takes a liking to the curtains soon. I've never had pullets act like this before.


Multiple times since putting the curtain on - she's quite determined so far not to sit in there for more than a brief time. She makes what seems like happy noises for a bit and shuffles around inside, and then if I go to leave she slides back out. There's also a ceramic egg in there even when there aren't everyone else's eggs.

Who knows what goes in these birds heads. Well I think you are on a good path with the curtains, eventually they all should get used to using the boxes. The girl that isn't using them now, well she may just remain a bit quirky about it all, hopefully she finds a place she feels comfortable using and it works for you too.

 

[Acre4Me]

I stained the largest nest box a dark color (it also received the most natural sunlight). Then, I used old feed bags to make a triangle of sorts (so it was a square folded) and screwed that onto the opening. There is a smaller opening now, it is darker inside, some birds love it!