Nesting Box Issues

[MangoTango426]

Our family started with 2 chickens, and now have 16. When we built a coop for them inside our barn, we put in 6 wooden nesting boxes. After we got more chickens, we put two metal ones on top of a cage we keep our two banty roosters in. Now, most of hens, except a little banty wyandotte that can't fly high enough to get on the cage, prefer the two metal ones. The chickens will wait in line to lay in these boxes, and some will refuse to go into the one on the left, and wait for the one on the right, until they really have to lay. They've also hid a couple around the barn. If you pick them up and set them in the wooden ones, they get upset and leave the barn instead of laying. The wooden ones are somewhere between 1 and 2 feet tall, and between 1 and 2 feet off the ground. The metal ones are on about a 3 foot tall cage. Why are my chickens so odd? Anyone else have this problem or know how I could solve it?

 

[sourland]

Your chickens are not odd. Many flocks have a favorite nest box that all want to use.

 

[AZBootsie]

You could try putting fake eggs or golf balls in the nesting boxes. But, chickens have minds of their own. Mine change favorites every so often. Like a hot new club, they want to be there.

Wait until you get a broody. EVERYONE will insist on laying their egg in her box.

 

[sourland]

Wait until you get a broody. EVERYONE will insist on laying their egg in her box.

So very true, and this can present a real problem.