Nesting box

[Clayglen]

What's the secret to getting hens to use the nesting boxes?

 

[earlybird10842]

Here's a link.

Are your chickens not understanding the concept of nestboxes?​

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don’t know your circumstances, if you have pullets getting ready to lay or hens already laying somewhere else. In either case there are no guarantees but there are things you can do.

Hens instinctively look for a safe place to lay, someplace “hidden” from predators. That may be behind or under something or just some place that looks hidden. Shadows on the coop floor may entice them. It seems to help if the nest or nest area is darker rather than in bright light. It doesn’t have to be black dark just not in bright light.

Once they start laying they like to return to the same place. Their instinct is to accumulate enough eggs to go broody, even if they never themselves go broody. So once they start laying somewhere you don’t want them to, it can be difficult to change that habit. They also like to lay where another hen is laying. It’s generally assumed that’s because they think if another hen wants to lay there, it is a safe place to lay, but it could also be that they want another hen to hatch their eggs. In either case, they like to lay together.

You’ll find that hens break these rules all the time. They may lay just about anywhere. But try to make the nest area or nest itself darker. Size isn’t all that important. They will lay in some pretty tight places or some pretty big places but keep in mind the idea of “hidden”. I know, someone will probably come on with a photo of them laying on top of a bucket lid out in the open. They lay in the strangest places.

I find it really helps to put a fake egg in the nest to make them think another hen is laying there. I use golf balls but others use plastic Easter eggs (fill them with sand or something to make them heavy then glue them shut), ping pong balls, wooden or ceramic eggs, just about anything that might look like an egg.

Have the nests open when they start to lay. You want their first egg to be in the nests, not somewhere else to the point you then have to break them from the bad habit of laying somewhere else. Some people on here will tell you to leave the nests blocked off until they start to lay to keep them from sleeping in the nests, but if they are sleeping in the nests I can deal with that in other ways without teaching them another bad habit.

If they are already laying somewhere else, your response will depend some on where that is. If it is outside the coop or run, lock them up until they have laid. They’ll have to find a new place and maybe that will be your nests. If you can find the other nests, take the eggs out of them and try to mess them up so they don’t look like a good safe placed to lay. You may need to keep them locked up until they lay for more than a week to break that old bad habit.

If they are laying on the coop floor or somewhere else you don’t want them to, you can try blocking that area off so they can’t get to it. I’ve never had much success with that approach since they usually just lay as close as they can get to the old nest, but some people have reported success with that approach.

You can make a portable nest and put it where they are laying, try to get them to use it. Then after they are used to using it, either be satisfied with that result and let them lay there or gradually move that portable nest towards the nests you want them to lay in. Once you get them established as laying in that area, you might remove that portable nest and see if they switch to your prepared fake egg nests.

I made some of my nests so I could lock a hen in there if I wished. If I catch a hen laying on the coop floor, I catch her and lock her in the nest until she lays that egg. It usually takes about a half hour but I’ve had a hen take over there hours. Then I let her out. Most of the time I only have to do that once, but I have had times it took two days in a row to break that other bad habit. It doesn’t bother me to scare her a bit when I move her to the nest. I want her to think that old nest is not a safe place to lay.

I seldom have this problem as I have older hens that are always laying with the flock. The older hens train the younger pullets where to lay. But every now and then one will start laying somewhere other than the nests, often an older hen. I’m not sure why. Maybe something frightens her while she is in a regular nest. Maybe she wants to hide a nest to accumulate eggs and go broody. I don’t know.

Hopefully you will get something out of this that will help you.

 

[Clayglen]

Thanks for the response...these are hens just old enough to start laying. Will continue to watch and work on making the nesting boxes a little more attractive to being used.