Nest boxes

[Shannon L F]

My girls ( 5 brown danish leghorns and 5 buff orphingtons)are 19 weeks old today.They are showing most of the signs of getting ready to start laying.My ? is, will they automatically know to lay in the nest boxes or could they lay anywhere, like in the wood shavings in their coop. They are kept in a large run with a thick sand layer over the ground. The entire run is covered with a carport type awning. We have lots of hawks and owls.

 

[BuffOrps416]

I currently have my first flock, so when one of my girls needed to lay she didn't have a nest. She (even being the, lets say "not smart one" of the group) figured things out herself and made a nice little hole in the dirt in one corner of the run. She dragged leaves in and everything and eventually laid her first egg there. After that I knew that we needed nests so I went out to BJ's and got cardboard boxes they have that people, I guess, donated or something.

My chook was taking a long time so I got a basket and filled it with hay and then was going to move her into it, but she already laid her egg and was just sitting on it! Sometimes you just have to trust your girls!

The only problem is, since you have sand, and not dirt, I'm not positive if your girls will do the same in the sand. Have they been taking "dirt" bathes in it though and treating it like dirt ( scratching through it, dirt bathes)? Also, they probably won't nest in the wood shavings.

 

[BuffOrps416]

I'm almost positive though, if you put a few nest boxes where they could access it, that when they need to lay, they will go in them. So I would give them a few (so they have choices) and maybe uncover the dirt in one section of the run, so if they don't like the boxes right away, they will make their own nest. Just make sure they don't have access to the boxes at night (while they still aren't laying); you don't want them to get used to sleeping there.

When my girl was going to lay her second egg, she kind of abandoned her self made nest and just used a box, and by the time the other girls were ready, they caught on and used the nests too. The girls kind of have the instant to go in the box, but don't get too worried if they lay in random places at first.

I read somewhere that chickens want to lay where other eggs are, so I would put a few golf balls in the nest so she kind of thinks they are eggs.

 

[Shannon L F]

Hi!! Yes they have a seperate area under the coop, where we built them a dust bath area. it is filled with a mixture of sterilized top soil, sand, and wood ash. They LOVE their dustbath!! I also have some exciting news!! I went into the coop today, to clean out the poop hammock, and I found a TINY egg in it!! it was in the poop, and had some yellowish, bloody stuff on it. Then I went to clean under the hammock, and I found a perfect, tiny egg in the pine shavings. SO!!!... they have started laying, just not in the right spot!!!

 

[Shannon L F]

P.S. I also have fake ceramic eggs in two of the nest boxes. I can tell they have checked them out. They just didnt lay their first eggs in them!!

 

[k-jinky]

i have 6 buff orpingtons that i got on march 30th, they are fat happy birds but they aren't interested in the nesting boxes and haven't laid yet.

I maid two out of 20gal rubber maids , and one just out of a box. the plastic ones have been out for 2weeks , and they haven't been in them, so I maid the cardboard one. ( its a bit taller ) . I have a galf ball in each , and no eggs or them " making a nest in them " ,

 

[wamtazlady]

i have 6 buff orpingtons that i got on march 30th, they are fat happy birds but they aren't interested in the nesting boxes and haven't laid yet.

The buff orpington is the only girl out of the 8 breeds I have to not lay yet. In fact, her comb is still pink, not red. Expect it will be another month and with the hours of daylight getting shorter I might wait until next spring for her to lay. She hatched February 27th.