Our flock has expanded...do I need more boxes?

[ChickenGrandma2202]

So our flock started as 5 laying, 1 getting ready within a month, and 5/7 still not sure who is boy and who is girl who will lay in Jan/Feb. And one very happy Rooster. Well this weekend it grew! New ones ares as follows 2 laying, 5 very close if not already, 2 no where close to laying, and a couple we think are actually boys but way to young to tell yet. So in total we have now have 25 birds.... this has became an addiction! Lol. We have a HUGE coop with lots of roosts and a large bird cage that we converted to use as nesting areas. Top half is sectioned off for privacy and bottom is large open area for if/when we decide to have babies of our own. We still have lots of room to add other items or areas as needed. My question is all 5 of the original girls have always layed together in one part of top nest area but I am unsure if I should add a nesting area in another section of coop or if they will all go and lay in same area? We found an egg on the floor and that has never happened before but not sure who it even belonged to... thoughts, ideas, suggestions??

 

[8 Chicks 1967]

I've been told 1 nest to 4 to 5 hens

 

[aart]

If you plan to use the current nesting area to raise new chicks,
I'd build a separate nesting area and close off the old one.
They won't be happy about it, but with time, patience, and some manipulation you can get them to use it.
Can you move the old nests to the new area?
That should help some.

Do you have these new birds fenced off from the old ones?
How are you handling integration?
The egg on the floor could be from the integration chaos(if it came from one of the existing birds)..or could be from one of the new laying birds(who may stop laying from moving/integration stress)

 

[Mrs. K]

I have occasionally had an egg on the floor. I just figure it is an opps!

I would not worry about it. What might happen, if you have too many birds in too few nests, is broken eggs. If you get broken eggs rather frequently, you probably need more nests. However, I have 4 nests, nearly identical, same place, same wood... and they will get a favorite and everyone will lay there.

So I would not get in a hurry to build nests, but I would have something in mind if you need them. Nearly anything can be made into a nest.

Mrs K

 

[Mary's Backyard Chickens]

I have 7 hens and 2 nestboxes.

 

[ChickenGrandma2202]

If you plan to use the current nesting area to raise new chicks,
I'd build a separate nesting area and close off the old one.
They won't be happy about it, but with time, patience, and some manipulation you can get them to use it.
Can you move the old nests to the new area?
That should help some.

Do you have these new birds fenced off from the old ones?
How are you handling integration?
The egg on the floor could be from the integration chaos(if it came from one of the existing birds)..or could be from one of the new laying birds(who may stop laying from moving/integration stress)

Yes they were separated for a while but now are all together. We can move they nesting area and honestly had thought about that. I just wasn't 100% sure how many boxes we needed. We will be moving coop around this weekend and building new boxes so we will see if that works. Thanks so much

 

[ChickenGrandma2202]

I have occasionally had an egg on the floor. I just figure it is an opps!

I would not worry about it. What might happen, if you have too many birds in too few nests, is broken eggs. If you get broken eggs rather frequently, you probably need more nests. However, I have 4 nests, nearly identical, same place, same wood... and they will get a favorite and everyone will lay there.

So I would not get in a hurry to build nests, but I would have something in mind if you need them. Nearly anything can be made into a nest.

Mrs K

They had 6 nesting boxes to start with and only 5 hens. All 5 lay in same area so guessing that's the favorite lol. Never had a broken egg. Honestly hadn't even thought about that. Going to add some boxes and an indoor dust bath (for winter) this weekend so hopefully that helps. I am thinking the floor egg was an oops cause it hasn't happened again. Lol. Thanks

 

[Ridgerunner]

Thanks for posting how many nests you have, I was getting ready to ask. I assume they are each at least 12" x 12" or bigger? Size can make a difference. If you have six nests at least 12" x 12" each that's plenty for 25 laying hens. They will probably use a couple of them more than the others but 6 is a real good number for 25 hens. If you can a photo of that nesting area that could help us a bit.

Laying an egg is a pretty complicated process, it's not unusual when a pullet first starts to lay that her first few eggs are weird in some way. It can take a while for a pullet to get all the bugs out if that internal egg making factory. One fairly common problem is that a pullet may not realize the egg is coming so she drops it wherever she happens to be, on the roost at night or just walking around. It may take a pullet a while to figure out she is supposed to lay it in a nest during the daytime. What's surprising to me is how many actually get to all right straight from the start.

Sometimes hens fixate on using one nest. I've seen three hens in the same nest laying while all the other nests were open. Some hens don't like to share a nest like that, they want it all for themselves. So I've seen a hen pacing and waiting to use one specific nest that had another hen on it with the other nests open. All kinds of strange things can happen when they are deciding where to lay an egg. An experienced hen can hold the egg for a while but an inexperienced pullet may not be able to.

If that egg is from a hen that has been laying for awhile, it could just be an "oops" as Mrs. K said. From what you describe I don't see anything to worry about. We are all entitled to an oops occasionally.

I'm not going to make any comments on the suitability of your area for hatching eggs with a broody when I don't know what I'm talking about. A photo could help with that. But even then that's mostly opinion. No matter what opinion one person has you will always find someone that does it entirely differently and still have great success. Before you start making a lot of modifications give us a chance to critique it. You are likely to get a lot of different opinions but maybe we can save you from unnecessary work and expense. We may even stop you from making it worse.

 

[ChickenGrandma2202]

I will try to get some current pictures. Only ones I have now are before we removed some of the tubs we had set up.... well they removed them lol.