Out of ideas, help needed please

[happyhen]

My RIRs started laying this week (19 wks old) and I find eggs everywhere but in the nestboxes.

I put the boxes in the coop a couple weeks ago with 2 golf balls in each. The girls checked out the boxes, left a few downy feathers in each, and then ignored them, as I expected. All good so far.

The day before the first egg, the nestboxes were trashed. Litter everywhere and golf balls rolled down the ramp into the yard. I tidied everything up and had a repeat experience 3 more times before finding the first egg ON TOP of the boxes. With 4 of them laying now, not one egg is in the box! The closest was about 6 inches away.

I switched out the milk crates I was using for nestboxes and put in larger storage containers this morning, fresh litter, golf balls, clean and pretty. No luck and poopy eggs!

Any ideas on how to get them to lay IN the boxes?

 

[SSO202]

It sounds like a problem that can be fixed all though I don't have the exact answer I'm sure it has been addressed in prior threads. I wish I could get mine just to lay an egg! Good Luck!

 

[Chirpy]

Where are your roosts located? It sounds like the girls are using the nest boxes for sleeping.

It also sounds like you're doing everything right. Most hens do like darker nest boxes so try to make them dark and cozy.

To keep them from laying on top of the nest boxes put a flat board angled over the top, they can't sit there so no eggs there.

I don't know what else to say... hopefully they'll figure it out pretty soon.

 

[happyhen]

Thanks Chirpy. I did angle the board on top of the boxes, and they all sleep on the roost at night.

They trash the nestboxes right after I tidy them.

 

[cmom]

How high are the roosts compared to the nests?