nesting box in coop

[ChaztheCat]

Mostly for lack of storage space, my nesting box lives in the coop. It's right where previous hens used it and not taking up any floor space. They have plenty of room to roam in a two story coop which also has an "annex."
Chickens are a couple of months from laying and have shown no interest in it so far.
Shall I just leave it or take it out until they are ready?

 

[WingItRanch]

Are they sleeping in it or just ignoring it? If sleeping in it, remove it if you can.

If not, I'd just leave it. They'll show interest when they're ready. Place a fake egg or golf ball in there so they know the nest box is a safe place to lay eggs.

 

[ChaztheCat]

Are they sleeping in it or just ignoring it? If sleeping in it, remove it if you can.

If not, I'd just leave it. They'll show interest when they're ready. Place a fake egg or golf ball in there so they know the nest box is a safe place to lay eggs.

Thanks. That's what I hoped to hear.
They have two sleeping roosts - one completely enclosed and another for summer sleeping.
Wooden eggs are just waiting for introduction.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Shall I just leave it or take it out until they are ready?

What do you hope to gain if you take it out? What benefits do you expect?

I want my nests available before they start to lay. Different reasons. I can't think of any benefits to them not being available.

Not always, but often, pullets start looking for a place to lay a week or so before they actually lay that first egg. So I want the nests open so they at least consider laying in them to start with.

Part of looking for a place to lay can involve scratching. If they scratch the bedding out maybe I need to raise the lip on the nest to stop them from scratching the bedding out.

If your roosts are higher than the nests they seldom sleep in the nests. Seldom does not mean always, occasionally one might. If they are going to sleep in the nests I want to know that ahead of time so I can retrain them to sleep somewhere else before I get poopy eggs. For me, that means I remove her from the nest and put her on the roost consistently every night until she gets the message. For some people retraining them where to sleep may involve blocking off the nests. Different people do this different ways. If I did that I'd want them retrained where to sleep in time for those nests to be opened when they started looking for a place to lay.

Another variation of this would be to block the nests off until they go to sleep and then open the nests after it is too dark for them to move around so the nests are open the following day during laying time. There are always different ways to approach something.