Some Questions about laying eggs

[AnimalGeek23]

Hi all
Since I’m planning everything ahead for my chicks coming in september, I have a few questions about egglaying.
When your hen first started laying eggs, did she lay them inside the nesting box? A friend of mine has hens and hers never lays eggs in the nesting box. How do they know they’re supposed to lay eggs there?
Also, I’ve heard that crushing up egg shells as calcium is a simple way of making calcium other than getting oyster shells. Does anyone do that?
Any advise is greatly appreciated!

 

[New2Chicks97]

Mine didn’t like the nesting boxes in the coop. The nesting boxes were higher than one of the roosts in our prefab coop so they decided it was a place to sleep. So I bought a set of galvanized nesting boxes and put them in the small attached covered run. About half of my chickens lay in those. The other half lay in the hay bales I put in their large run off of the coop. Occasionally one or two wait until late afternoon until I let them out to free range and decide to lay in the big haystack. Chickens definitely have their own ideas about where they should leave their eggs.

I tried using golf balls as a substitute for fake eggs. After a few days the girls kicked them out of the boxes.

Some people to dry and crush the egg shells. I bought a bag of oyster shell. It was not overly expensive and it lasts quite a while.

 

[ChickNanny13]

I've never had a problem with pullets laying their first egg in the nest box, don't use a conventional nest box either. My Chicken House is 8x12x7 wrapped in chicken wire, roof & shower curtain that I can open/close, living here it's warm but get rainy & windy. A large plastic dog house is their nest box, elevated off the ground with a roost over it & poop board under the roost. There's several other roosts in the CH. I use shavings in the nest box dusted with DE, never had an issue with laying.

Here's a funny ... I had an EE pullet once, I was in there CH cleaning, she was walked in front of me, pooped out an egg & kept walking. I was

I've read some use fake eggs, golf balls, ceramic eggs to show the girls where to lay.

I don't feed layer instead ferment Flock Raiser with Oyster Shells in a separate dish then they start laying. Haven't had any issues with egg shells. Oyster Shells easier for me but have read some bake then crush the egg shells, some just crush & toss.

 

[PouleChick]

My girls were pretty good and laid in boxes straight away even when we put them in the new coop they worked it out. I put fake plaster eggs in to show them where. I have had some laying in thier run - always when the egg is a bit funny - I wonder if it comes out quickly and surprises my young pullets or something. I have been crushing up my shells but have oyster as well.

 

[Farmgirl1878]

My BLW pullet just laid her first egg yesterday! The nest boxes weren’t ready yet, so she just dug a hole in the sand in the corner of the coop. I leaned a piece of cardboard up against the wall to give her some quiet and dark and she pooped out a pretty big egg. Of course all the other six girls stood around and watched while she did it... I could tell one or two of them were thinking, “uh-uh, no way, not coming out of my butt!”

So now that the nest boxes are ready, I’m betting that the girls will never lay an egg in there!

 

[AnimalGeek23]

So cute! Thanks for sharing!

 

[FeatherstoneFrm]

Updated to add picture of nest box:

Mine didn't like my nest boxes. I think they were too small. I replaced them with a large oval plastic tub. The kind you would put ice and drinks in for a party. It is about a foot off the ground. I put a piece of 1inch pvc wrapped in a pool noodle across in front of it to stabilize and give them something to jump to to get in and out. And of course shavings and a ceramic egg.
They started using it right away.
I still have some that haven't started laying so we'll see if it is acceptable to all.

 

[Sakai]

I had two nest boxes, they all lay in one, OR they lay in the run.
We used the golf ball trick with our pullets when there are no older hens to show them where to lay. It always worked.
For some reason, with this batch of hens, half of them lay in the run. I figure because they all want to use the same box. So we moved the second unused box into the run, and half the time they will lay in there and the other half in the dirt.
Funny thing happened today. I was feeding my hens sprouted barley and not three seconds into the feeding frenzzy did an egg appear in the dirt. I have no idea who laid it. It was suddenly just there. I had a good laugh.

 

[Farmgirl1878]

My girls “discovered” the nest box this morning! Goldie and The Captain were in there busily digging a nest in the sand and all the other girls were quietly standing by watching. Scratch, who laid her first egg yesterday, was singing the egg song out in the run while Goldie was quietly whining in the nest box. No egg yet, but I think it’ll happen today. I have curtains to put up, but in the meantime the cardboard seems to be okay...

 

[PirateGirl]

The size of calcium particles matters. Crushing eggshells to feed back to the girls can be good for them IN ADDITION to oyster shell, but due to particle size and the way it is metabolized it is not a substitution. There are some really good reads/studies on this you can find published on the web. I like this article as it is easy to read and understand and includes links to sources. There are many scientific studies and publications out there as well, but this is a decent summary of the findings.

https://the-chicken-chick.com/for-strong-eggshells-size-matters/