Pullet doesn't seem to like nesting areas

[Crystal Chicken]

I have a 20 week old pullet she's laid 2 eggs so far. She seems to take forever to decide on a place to lay her eggs. She's currently going on at least 1 hour in just going from nest box to nest box, in the coop out of the coop, digging in the bottom of the coop, but she wont lay... there are fake eggs in the nesting boxes but she just knocks them out while trying to decide where to lay... I tried just putting more straw in the bottom of the coop, on the side with the nesting boxes so she can nest on the bottom there if she wants.. but she's just not.. any tips or tricks?

 

[TwoCrows]

Being a pullet she may not be a regular layer yet, maybe she just likes testing the nest box waters? Chickens can be picky on where they lay their eggs. In the back of their minds they are thinking...is this box safe? Is it bug free? Can I raise babies in here? So just make sure the box is in a quiet darker corner of the coop. Keep the fake eggs in the boxes, maybe even add curtains, broodies love curtains for the darkness!

 

[Crystal Chicken]

Being a pullet she may not be a regular layer yet, maybe she just likes testing the nest box waters? Chickens can be picky on where they lay their eggs. In the back of their minds they are thinking...is this box safe? Is it bug free? Can I raise babies in here? So just make sure the box is in a quiet darker corner of the coop. You might keep fake eggs in the boxes, maybe even add curtains, broodies love curtains for the darkness!

There are fake eggs ( i edited to add that to my post so you may not have seen that)the nest boxes are in a dark quiet corner. Maybe ill try curtains. Silly birds....

 

[Tonyroo]

She just needs time to get use to it.

Curtains are helpful, but I only use it when my top hen gets in the mood to kick everyone out of the nest box. This helps to make it hard for her to see them inside.

 

[Mrs. K]

Stop watching her, don't look until tomorrow.

Seriously, they are just figuring it out, and it takes a while to get the rhythm. Not to worry.

 

[aart]

any tips

Patience.

 

[Birdinhand]

It seems like, for some hens, the hormones are on hyper drive during this transitional phase. Behavior can be all over the place. In general they do a lot of fussing around as they start laying, surely it takes getting used to to figure out what all the physical and hormonal prompts mean in terms of timing of when that egg is going to drop. it’s more like it happens to them rather than something they control and especially early on, there is discomfort with the process and it all adds up to fidgetiness. The bird will hit its stride very soon I bet.