Rain scared my young chick from laying in her nest box

[Rockergirl]

My chicken started laying eggs about 2 weeks ago. The first couple of times she layed on the poop board so I put some straw there to make her comfortable for a couple of days while we made a couple of adjustments to her nest box. As soon as we made adjustments to the nest box, she immediately moved to laying eggs there instead of the poop board, yay! However, we had a bad storm 2 & 3 nights ago and the nest box had a small leak in where the door opens to get the eggs. It didn't get soaked in the nest box but did get fairly wet. I guess she decided no way to the wetness and went to her poop board again. Yesterday we fixed/sealed the problem area in the next box, dried and cleaned it out and gave her fresh straw. She stood there and watched the entire process (she is a very curious bird, always right at our feed). I thought for sure she would move back to her nest box last night. She did not. Now I'm afraid those couple of days with rain just totally turned her off, that she isn't going to forget and she will be a poop board layer forever...ugh. Like I said, she is only 2 weeks into laying and we have 3 other birds that should start laying in a week or 2. I want to quickly figure out how to change her habit back to the nest box so that she is in the right spot and so that the other 3 follow her there and not on the poop board.

Any suggestions? We laid the fake egg there again....I considered putting straw back on her poop board to make her "enjoy" the straw and then remove the straw from the board so then maybe she will go in search of the straw and find it in the nest box? I'm not so sure that will matter if she feels dry & safe on the poop board....

 

[3KillerBs]

Young pullets sometimes take a while to figure the nests out.

I never take my golfballs out of the nests.

 

[Rockergirl]

I'm not sure what to do...so frustrating. She had no problem using the nest box until it rained and got wet in the nest box. I tried putting straw on her poop board where she started laying after the nest box got wet (to get her used to laying in straw again in hopes of edging her back to her box). She moved to laying on the other side of the poop board away from the straw as if she can't stand straw anymore since her experience with it being wet in her nest box. So, I tried putting wood chips there instead (the nest box has wood chips and straw) - she is staying clear of the wood chips too (we use hemp for the coop and run floor). She will now only lay in the sand on the poop board. It's like she has been traumatized from the rain making the straw/wood chips wet in her nest box. Every day I go out there and we stand together and have a little "conversation" about her nest box. I'll show her the fake egg and she looks at it and then I pat the nest box and she'll put her foot on it and bop her head around in it and she will cluck at me and I swear she knows what I'm talking about. But still nothing, she won't go back in it since the rainy day. I'm at a loss.....I wonder if I should just put sand in it since she seems to like to lay in sand? I just know sand is hard and doesn't allow her to "nest". I'm just worried if we don't get her back in it, the other 3 ladies will follow her to the poop board once they start laying and then I'll have a big mess on my hands when they start cracking eggs on that hard board....not to mention it's kind of not so pleasant to have eggs mushed in with poop and I don't really like it for her health....

 

[aart]

Pretty hard to force them, can often backfire.
I'd just let it go, put the fake eggs in the nests and wait.
It might be the other birds eventually draw her back in to the nests.
Do you only have one nest?

 

[MotherofOrpies]

If you are really desperate, and you see she wants to lay an egg, shut her in the nest box until she lays an egg, after 1-2 days of this, she will realize there is nothing bad about it, I do this with hens which don’t use the nest box. Whenever I see them getting nervous, I shut them in, and after a few days they behave and start laying in the box again