Not using the nesting box :( any ideas why?

[Sasham]

We just found our first 2 eggs I'm so excited. But..... They were on the floor of the coop in the corner not in the nesting box. We still have them in a temporary coup that we haven't spent to much time on, and the nesting boxes don't have a top, I was worried about it before they started laying because thy have been using them to roost on the walls and poop all over in them. So I guess I'm glad they aren't laying eggs in their poop but how do I get them to realize this is not their roost? They do have an actual roost by the way but they don't use it.

 

[bigredshaverhen]

Congrats for your first egg! We have found that some chickens like a certain kind of bedding for their nest boxes, and if we don't give ours what they want they scratch around in there getting half the bedding out. You could try giving them a dusting of bedding in their boxes, and you could put their eggs in the boxes so that next time they go to lay an egg they will see and they should notice..

Good luck!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Have you got any "bait" in the nest boxes? Golf balls, wooden eggs, etc are a cue to the bird that the nest box is a good, safe place to lay an egg because it makes it appear that someone else has already used it to lay their egg(s) which is like the hen seal of approval.