Rollaway nests, Ladies are not a fan

[PoppasGrill]

These rollaway nests have been on the wall a month now and we have gotten 3 eggs out of them.
There are 50 + hens that have access to this, and maybe 10 girls have jumped up to explore this setup.
We put a little hey in there to get them to check it out, but not enough to block the egg roll.
Not sure what else to do to get them to use it. Any advise is appreciated.

 

[Debbie292d]

They look a little small but still I'd think they'd work.

Can you make it easier for them to get to them and remove a few of their other ones?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Put a perch in front of them for a landing zone so they can stand outside of them and check them out before going in?

 

[PoppasGrill]

Put a perch in front of them for a landing zone so they can stand outside of them and check them out before going in?

There is a landing/perch that sticks out about 6 “ in front. I put curtains up for privacy, and put shredded paper in one to give them something to read while laying.
Debbie292d- they are a bit small for our Orps and Brahma, though the Leghorns have plenty of room.
We closed a few of the nests for deep cleaning due to broken or eaten eggs and they layed on the ground .
That other wall mounted nest gets 1-2 eggs a day and the other like it has a rooster that sleeps in it at night so the hens don’t use it.

 

[LaurelC]

There is a landing/perch that sticks out about 6 “ in front. I put curtains up for privacy, and put shredded paper in one to give them something to read while laying.
Debbie292d- they are a bit small for our Orps and Brahma, though the Leghorns have plenty of room.
We closed a few of the nests for deep cleaning due to broken or eaten eggs and they layed on the ground .
That other wall mounted nest gets 1-2 eggs a day and the other like it has a rooster that sleeps in it at night so the hens don’t use it.

It seems a little high. Have you tried lowering it so they don't have to hop up so much to get into it? We have a double layer nest box in our mobile coop, and I'd say we get 2/3 more eggs in our lower near ground level boxes than we do in our top boxes, despite the hens only needing to hop ~18" to get into it.

 

[PoppasGrill]

It seems a little high. Have you tried lowering it so they don't have to hop up so much to get into it? We have a double layer nest box in our mobile coop, and I'd say we get 2/3 more eggs in our lower near ground level boxes than we do in our top boxes, despite the hens only needing to hop ~18" to get into it.

It’s just as high as the nest boxes that they use all the time, and we don’t want egg eaters to be able to reach the nests.
Snakes, and opossums have eaten eggs that were layed late on the ground, though we don’t see them often and even less often when we have a weapon with us.
Have had a hen killed in a nest box by something, think an opossum since the broody hen was torn up and all the eggs she was on were gone in the morning when we found her.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Aww, that's terrible!