Please help a newbie with eggs on the floor....

[tinkarooni]

Long time lurker here....learned a lot from you guys but now I have a problem. I have 23 week old Buff Orphingtons. (9 of those) One is starting to lay and is laying in the coop way in the back underneath and in front of the next boxes but not inside of them. She makes a cute little nest in the litter and leaves me brown eggs there. She just started this weekend and did it again today.

I can't move my nest boxes because they are attached witha little door that opens from the outside. There are three of them, 18 inches off of the floor. There is litter in them and a little white golf ball in each.

My husband is nuts because he built the coop to exact size specifications as per a book.....I told him the chickens didn't read the same manual, he is not amused

Any ideas how to get them laying in the nest boxes?
Help please, when they all start laying I'm going to have a real mess.

 

[kristenm1975]

I have a young silver phoenix who's only been laying for a month and for whatever reason, she has laid half her eggs by the feeder. I know its her because her eggs are the only white-tinted ones. In this case, I think its mainly because the older girls in my coop pester her for using "their" nest box, so she gets shooed away from the nest and the egg ends up just popping out where she happens to be standing at the moment. Poor girl!

Its possible that since your hen is a young one, she just isn't sure yet what's happening, and once she gets the idea or sees eggs in the nests, she'll start laying there. You might just do the old trick of putting a golf ball in the nest, or if you're like me and have no such thing lying around your house, just put the egg she lays next into the nest.

 

[77horses]

tinkarooni wrote:
My husband is nuts because he built the coop to exact size specifications as per a book.....I told him the chickens didn't read the same manual, he is not amused smile

hehehe that's funny!​

 

[tinkarooni]

Anyone else? Any ideas? I already have a golf ball in the nest boxes. They are 18 inches off the floor. It doesn't look like any of them have ever even been in them.

 

[chick_newbie]

Dumb question but do you have any roosts in front of the nests? I know that I forgot to put them on and the chickens didn't go in until we put them on. Now they all go in the nests.

 

[tinkarooni]

This is all just too much fun!!

So yes, I have a roost in front of the boxes but it didn't appear that any of the chickens were even using it. So today at lunch I went out. Another slightly bigger egg on the floor and......wait for it........an egg IN THE NEST BOX!!! Who would've thought these chickens would figure it out!

This was clearly a new layer because it was a small egg. So the original girl is still laying on the floor and this new one is smart enough to use the nest box. One of the other boxes was mussed up a little so somebody was checking it out. I'm hoping the floor layer will see the other and get the idea.

Two eggs today....it was just like Christmas in the chicken coop for me today!