Not using Nest Box

[AtholCoop]

It had been a couple days since I got ANY eggs. Kinda odd, because I generally get three eggs every two days.

Got up first thing Saturday morning to do my feed and water weekly chores and I decided to do some turning over of the litter in the roost room...open the door...

WHAT!

There's four eggs in the corner of the roost room.

So what the nest is too nice for you?

Now I've got to figure out how to retrain my hens. Grabbed a couple plastic eggs from my daughters toy kitchen "but daddy they'll get pooped on". Whatever.

I put the decoy eggs in the nest box.

A couple hours later I notice that one of the hens isn't in the exercise yard. I spy through the window and she's sitting in the next box. "Good Girl"

A couple more hours later I go out and there's an egg in the nest box.

Just before I went to bed I checked again...and she's moved the egg! How an animal with no hands moves an egg UP 1-2" and over a couple feet amazes me.

I move the egg BACK into the nest box with the decoys.

Now they seem to have decided that they were wrong to not use the nest box. But what the heck caused them to stop in the first place?

 

[willowcol]

Not sure but mine stopped using there's to, funny thing is they are all using a big dirt filled flower pot that I had put on my front porch and never moved. So I figure why argue, if they want to deliver the eggs to the front door so be it. Maybe they like thier place better. Not sure what you can do, I am leaving mine alone, hehehe.

 

[Jolyn]

When my hens wouldn't lay in the nest box i went out and bought two large kitty liter boxes. I flipped them upside down and placed them in the areas of the coop where they were laying. It kind of forced them off the coop floor and into the nest boxes. it worked and they are laying in the nest boxes now. Maybe try putting something on the ground in the areas that they have taken to.

Hope that helps.