stopped laying in nest box

[CT chicken lover]

Been laying in nest box for months and then yesterday found only 3 in nest, and 2 in an area that they continually dig out. Today, all 5 eggs on the floor. Any idea why they decided to change laying venues? Any ideas how to get them to lay back in the box?

 

[feathersnuggles]

Pick up the eggs on the floor, ruffle and mess up the floor "nest", put a brick or other thing in that spot and cover with the floor straw. When you see them sitting on the floor, pick them up and put them into the nestbox. The sooner you do it, the easier to break the habit. Once they see eggs in the floor "nest", they think it's the right place and they create a new habit. Also put a golf ball in each nest box, to give them the feeling of having an "egg" already there. Also, put fresh straw or shavings into their old nests. Maybe they are dirty?

I've got only 1 that insists on laying her eggs on the coop floor. I've tried to move her into the nest but all she does is scream and go back to the floor. So, after a bunch of tries I gave up. I just have to keep picking up her egg quickly, so that the others don't lay on top of hers.

Very rarely, my hens will all need to lay their eggs at the same time and they'll have a traffic-jam over the nests. A few of those times have produced an egg delivered into an impromptu nest on the floor -- from a hen who could no longer wait. But that didn't result in a new habit.

 

[CT chicken lover]

Thanks. I'll give it a try tomorrow.

 

[CT chicken lover]

It worked! Thanks for all the help.

 

[holahead]

My BO hen will not lay in a nesting box. She will dig a hole in the corner of the pen take the hay from the nesting box and put it in her hole. I have tried everything to get to stop and she won't so I finally said the heck with. I just let her lay it in her hole now.

 

[Warthog]

My hens chop and change, sometimes they will lay in the nest boxes, all forty lining up to use 3, they have more but only use 3, some lay on the floor, one comes out of the pen each morning 8ft fence and lays in the goat shed.

So, I have tried everything, fake eggs, golf balls, moving them from floor to nest box, and given up after several tries. They can lay where they want, does it really matter?

It would be easier collecting eggs, but why worry, I don't anymore, the hens are happy, so am I.

 

[rstampa]

One or two of my hens would do the same thing. Lay their eggs on the floor of the coop. But within a short time they went back laying in the nestbox. Of course, I have the smartest hens in town.