Pullets not laying in nest box

[meekasmom]

My 20 week old pullets have starting laying but not one egg has been in the nest box. They have hollowed out a spot in the box but the eggs are always on the floor. I put golf balls in the boxes and they kicked them out. Will they eventually get the idea and lay in the boxes?

 

[mnferalkitty]

They will get the idea, but some never lay in the nest box. You can try putting the nest box where you are finding the eggs

 

[Nslangton]

My brown sex links just started laying also. I had my first egg from the lightest girl laid on the floor of the coop underneath the nest boxes. My second one to lay decided to lay out in the run under their rock house. I have golf balls in the nest boxes. First I had shavings inside a pillow case in the boxes. I figured they didn't like that so I switched to straw. No luck. Today I have three different girls singing the egg song and none of them will use the boxes. I physically picked them up and put them inside and they instantly jump out. I took their rock house out of the run and lowered the nest box so they couldn't get underneath. Hopefully they will figure it out soon. I will keep watching this thread hopefully some one will give some good advice.

 

[Fred's Hens]

You can try this. Starting pullets often need a laying nest on the floor. A chicken's instinct, from pre-domesticated times, is to lay on the ground. That's where wild chickens lay their eggs. Once they have mastered laying in a box on the floor, it isn't hard to encourage them to lay in a box slightly higher up.

Having the box up in the air, where the bird has to jump up 3 feet to reach the nest, is more about the convenience of the human egg collector. Granted, it isn't a lot of fun squatting down to collect eggs from boxes on or just above the floor.

 

[meekasmom]

I put one of those round rubber shallow feeders and put straw and a golf ball in it and I got an egg laid in there. It is on floor level so they do like to lay on the ground level. I also have 2 nest boxes on ground level but those so far have been unused. I say, whatever works!

 

[RunnerChick]

Since this was posted in June, did they eventually learn? I'm coming across a similar problem now. My first girl started laying at 16 weeks. Imagine my surprise, and we hadn't yet gotten the nest boxes up. Since then, everyone else has started laying in the nest boxes. The one who didn't lay in the nest box still doesn't, but she lays off to the side out of the way, and it's not a huge problem.

However, just today I found two eggs not only on the floor but UNDER the roost...yuk. They were small and soft, and therefore I suspect they are coming from hens just starting to lay. I have no idea why they chose there, but I want to stop that before it becomes a bad habit!

I have 15 pullets but they are all starting laying at various times. I may start a separate post for this question, but was wondering what happened in your case.

 

[Fred's Hens]

When young pullets begin to lay, they will often pass small, soft eggs right from the roost while sleeping, unaware they even have done so.

 

[JesikaD01]

All of ours have been laying in the boxes from day 1 except our frizzle. she started laying on the opposite side of the coop. she did that for a week then today her egg was in the box. so proud!