Soft landing?

[SandyRiverChick]

My curious newest pullets have been kicking all straw and hay out of my lower nest boxes so I took a queue from Ted Brown. He has a thread about his really cool antique nest boxes and functionality he worked on. He uses astro turf in the bottom with straw on top of that. I just tried this a few days ago and so far so good, no kicking out.....

 

[aart]

No, what you are seeing is the nesting boxes inside the coop.

OK, wasn't sure. I expected to see the nest entrances from inside the coop, not outside the coop where you gather eggs.

I assume that's a prefab minicoop where the nests are on the same level as the floor of the coop...so not surprising that they are kicking everything out of the nests and onto the coop floor.

Nests work best with a 4-6" lip on the front of the nests, to keep things form falling or being kicked out of the nest.
New layers especially have a habit of vigorous arranging of the nest bedding before laying, that will smooth out as they get sued to laying.

 

[Dominique King]

Ya, new chickens to laying. We only have 4 RIR's. No roosters. I found 2 eggs 4 days ago. One was crushed in the run and the other was real soft shelled. They are on laying feed and we add a little oyster shell to the feed also. I guess I may just be worrying too much as a new chicken owner. Lol We got them at 2 months old and they are right at 5 months old now.

I agree. Oyster shells really do help. They have calcium in them which hardens the shells. You can also cut out cardboard that fits the nesting box and put the shavings on top of that so that when you clean you have a clean nesting box!

 

[Dominique King]

I agree. Oyster shells really do help. They have calcium in them which hardens the shells. You can also cut out cardboard that fits the nesting box and put the shavings on top of that so that when you clean you have a clean nesting box!

I use hay for my nesting boxes but the cardboard trick works the same.

 

[bsshog40]

Good ideas. @aart Ya a prefab. I think I'll measure the boxes and make a lip for the front of them. See if that helps.

 

[bsshog40]

So I just put a piece of 1x4 across all nesting boxes. We'll see if that works. Thanks for all the help y'all.

 

[bsshog40]

Well an hour later, board seems to be working. Already had a lay in one box. Looks like shell is getting better but it did have a small break. Hopefully they will improve.

 

[Gnymont]

Ya, new chickens to laying. We only have 4 RIR's. No roosters. I found 2 eggs 4 days ago. One was crushed in the run and the other was real soft shelled. They are on laying feed and we add a little oyster shell to the feed also. I guess I may just be worrying too much as a new chicken owner. Lol We got them at 2 months old and they are right at 5 months old now.

 

[Mrs. K]

That looks like a hen stepped on it, and a claw poked through. They should straighten out soon.

 

[bsshog40]

All has been good for sometime now. No damaged eggs. It seems our reds use one nesting box most of the time. Lol I usually wait til late afternoon to get eggs and all 4 eggs are in one nesting box. Lol Anyway, all is good!!!