Not laying in nesting boxes!

[Chickens-are-cool]

I have six-6 month old pullets, two of which have started laying eggs, they are doing great! One of them lays every single day and one lays about 5 eggs a week. The only problem is, they won’t lay in the nesting boxes!!! They have decided they lay their eggs in the farthest corner of their coop in the place hardest for me to reach. Any ideas for how to get them to lay in the boxes?

 

[CluckerFamily]

Do you have fake eggs in the nesting boxes?
I have taken their eggs in the morning and placed them in the nesting boxes for the day.

 

[RLockhart68]

I'm having the same problem with my lone bantam layer. I think tomorrow I'm going to move one of the boxes to the corner she is using, then when she gets the idea that she is supposed to lay in it I can move it back. Not sure if it will work but thankfully I am using totes for nest boxes so they are easily moved.

 

[Chickens-are-cool]

Do you have fake eggs in the nesting boxes?
I have taken their eggs in the morning and placed them in the nesting boxes for the day.

I had golf balls in there but they moved them to where they lay. Does using their own eggs work better?

 

[Chickens-are-cool]

I'm having the same problem with my lone bantam layer. I think tomorrow I'm going to move one of the boxes to the corner she is using, then when she gets the idea that she is supposed to lay in it I can move it back. Not sure if it will work but thankfully I am using totes for nest boxes so they are easily moved.

That’s a good idea! I might have to try that!

 

[CluckerFamily]

I had golf balls in there but they moved them to where they lay. Does using their own eggs work better?

I don't know if it works better. I've never used golf balls before, just their own eggs. Golf balls seem to work for others.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

I had some pullets once that wouldn't lay in the nesting box that I gave them. They wouldn't even go near it! So I decided to try a wooden rabbit nesting box that I always used for my broody hens. Those pullets hopped right in and that was the place they layed when some other hen wasn't guarding it or I wasn't using it for some broody hen.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I had golf balls in there but they moved them to where they lay. Does using their own eggs work better?

Don't move the golf balls to where they're laying. That's reinforcing that they're doing the right thing in laying there. Ugh I read that wrong, nvm!

If you know exactly which birds are the problem layers, then:

Now this isn't practical if you don't have time to stalk them, but what I did was I learned the problem bird(s) laying schedules, and when they went to their preferred spot to lay, I'd go and pick them up, stick them in a nest box, and barricade them in using my arms to cover the exit. 30-60 seconds was all they needed to calm down and start exploring the box and decide that maybe it wasn't such a bad place to be. They each started reliably using the boxes after that.

Alternatively, some folks design "doors" on their nest boxes so birds can be locked in, which basically does the same as above, but forces the bird to stay in the nest box (whereas once I see them exploring and sitting down in the nest, I leave them to it and walk away).

 

[aart]

I have six-6 month old pullets, two of which have started laying eggs, they are doing great! One of them lays every single day and one lays about 5 eggs a week. The only problem is, they won’t lay in the nesting boxes!!! They have decided they lay their eggs in the farthest corner of their coop in the place hardest for me to reach. Any ideas for how to get them to lay in the boxes?

Show us your coop and nests.

 

[RLockhart68]

I have fake eggs in 2 of the boxes. Found one rolled out the other day
On a good note. Moving the nest box to the preferred location resulted in an egg in the box instead of beside it and my new layer laid in one of the other boxes