We don't need no stinking BOXES!

[AZBootsie]

Quote:
I gave mine little drapes (kinda) It worked.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/71564_dsc02178.jpg
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/71564_dsc02176.jpg
nogahyde (spelling?? fake leather stuff) and a staple gun. Cut a mousehole type door and then cut the fabric into strips.

OMG, the whole thing puts me in mind of a bank in the old west.
Nice, real nice!

No wonder the hens love it!

Thank you

 

[ellie97]

I occasionally have the same problem...but luckily most of my girls lay in the nest boxes. I do have one very random Araucana who lays her eggs on the ground or in the feed bucket.

I would get those fake eggs-they might be more convincing than golf balls.

Or just buy some real eggs from the store and put them in.

 

[GoArmy]

My wife has sacrificed an egg and put it in one of the boxes. I think I'll try to do something about drapes today. AZBootise, how did you teach them to read the sign? Should I get some ABC books for them?

 

[AZBootsie]

Quote:
Just natural genius, self taught prodigies.

 

[Aemelia]

Mine like the back corner of their coop too. The nest boxes are above where they are laying. They lay in the same corner they sleep in because my dorky birds won't roost either. I had planned to hang their food and water containers where they sleep currently. Maybe if I painted it <-----Lay here, Sleep there-----> they would figure it out!

 

[jennh]

Have you tried actually placing one in the nest box when they look like they are going to lay? Usually they will stay if the "egg is near".

 

[galanie]

Quote:

I should so do that!

On a more serious note, I have Orps and a couple of Dark Cornish. The Dark Cornish made their own little deep nest on the wall opposite the nest box to lay in, and that's ok with me. So long as it's in the coop and in a nest, they can make their own if they'd rather

 

[ECBW]

What's with the golfballs? Just take the first egg from the floor and put it in the nest. The next bird would realize the purpose of the square box and follow.

 

[afj6710]

Quote:
I gave mine little drapes (kinda) It worked.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/71564_dsc02178.jpg
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/71564_dsc02176.jpg
nogahyde (spelling?? fake leather stuff) and a staple gun. Cut a mousehole type door and then cut the fabric into strips.

This is AWESOME! I love this idea!

 

[copperpot]

I just used my layena bag for the curtains. Tacked it up and just cut strips. The girls figured it out just fine. They like it in there, maybe a little too much judging by how long it takes some of them to lay but at least they still sleep on the roosts.

Mary Ann