Teaching them to lay eggs in the nestbox?

[Davaroo]

I'd be afraid the lightbulbs would break and harm the hens though.

Sounds like one of those expedient, old fashioned "farmy" ideas we all go so nostalgic over. I dont think they worried so much back in grandads day.

Besides, lightbulbs are pretty tough. In rounded cross section, the bub is really an ARCH, one of the strongest structures known. Heck the Romans built an empire on it.

Glass, too, is quite strong in compression. I doubt a chicken could just up and break a light bulb by nesting on it. Its only when you drop the thing on something hard, like a floor, that the glass caves in and breaks.

Imagine, though, if you had to sit on something the size of a beachball all day. Dang!​

 

[silkiechicken]

Sit on a beach ball... I think it would be worse for them to give birth to that beach ball!

 

[jkm]

Well my barreds and buffs are 17 -18 weeks and I added a large tupperware carton on the floor of the coop with shavings and a plastic egg.
I have not caught them in it, but they are now going in and out of the coop in the am, which is new behavior this week.
I am keeping them in their run in the AM, not out in the yard, but they have a small tree, and I am getting worried about how one of the buffs likes to make a fluffy nest in the shavings under the tree, where I can't reach them.
so thnaks for all the advice about adding the eggs to the correct place, eggs will happen, I just to be patient a few more weeks.

thanks for the advice