My B.O., Borp, stopped laying eggs on the floor this week! She has been laying for 6 weeks now, and has just loved laying eggs in the poop. I tried making nests on the floor, putting plywood over her favorite spots, and a few other things, but she was very determined. Recently, I would just put her in a proper nest whenever I saw her start to dig. Last week she began to stay in the nest if I put her there, and then 3 days ago she started going to the nest all on her own!. I take no credit for training her, though. I just think some switch went off in her tiny chicken brain! Today, however, I observed something sad. Poor Borp wanted to go into a nest, but could'nt figure out how. My nests are a bit high, about 30". The other birds just jump up to the nests. Borp is massive. She tried to jump but fell short and had a hard crash! It looked like she was hurting. She could have used a ramp at the other end of the coop, 8' away, then follow a long perch to the nests, but this was too much for her to figure out. I switched the orientation of the ramp so that it led directly to the nests, then showed her the ramp. She went back to attempt another jump. Again I showed her the ramp. To my amazement she climbed it and hopped into a nest. GOOD BIRD!!!
Nice of you to help the big girl out. It must be hard to jump that high when you have an egg to lay. My nest boxes are high too. Although the hens weren't having trouble with the height, they could not tell from the ground which boxes were occupied. So I found an old bench from a picnic table and placed it in front. Now they can stand on their bench and stretch their little necks and find an empty box.
