We need help putting a stop to the daily egg hunt. Advice please!

[ChikinQueen]

We have ten chickens who are all about four months old, and they have just started laying, but we are having trouble getting them to lay in their coop. So far, every day, we have found an egg in a little nest they made in one of the hay bales. I think there is more than one hen laying, because we have found eggs in the aisle of the barn, in horse's stalls, and once broken in the coop as if she laid an egg while roosting.

They only have four, temporary nest boxes in their coop at the moment, but I hope to change that soon. We have tried using different nesting materials, recently switching from hay (which they ate instead of nested in) to pine shavings. We have tried putting fake eggs in the nest boxes to see if they got the idea. Instead they just pecked at the golf balls and continued laying on their nest bale. They recognize the coop as home, because that's where they go every night.

We've thought of locking them in all day, like I've seen suggested here, but it is way too hot to leave them trapped in there. We've tried leaving them in for awhile, but the one hen seems to hold it in until we let them out. She goes right to her nest in the hay bale. We're not sure what else to do to get them to lay in coop, and we could really use any advice anyone has on the subject.
Thank you!

 

[dainerra]

Do they have a run attached to their coop? If so, leave them locked in the run for several days. It can take a while to break old habits.

 

[Den in Penn]

If you don't confine them, go with the flow. Make nests outside for them. Or when you find a good spot they have used, put a fake egg there so they think that is still a good spot the lay. My preference is still to confine them till they learn.

 

[karlamaria]

I also suggest to confine them to the coop/run. until they lay in the coop your going to have a bunch of eggs out there stinking if you do not find them. mine laid in the bushes etc, we finally had to confine them to the coop/run and they started using the nest boxes when they could not get out and roam.

 

[7 Biddies]

Have you tried picking the chicken and her egg up, and placing both in a nest box? After she's in there with her egg, praise her and give her a small treat. Don't know if you can train chickens this way, but it's worth a try.

 

[ChikinQueen]

Thank you for the feedback.

They do not have a run for them. We put a box fan in their coop, which has cooled it down considerably, but it's still too hot to keep them in all day. One chicken has been laying in the coop, but this morning I found four eggs in the bale nest they had made. I'm considering trying the fake eggs again (maybe they hated the golf balls because they were white and they lay brown eggs).

As for trying to train the chickens, that's not a bad idea, but in order for it to work I'd have to catch the chicken in the act. So far I have been unable to do so. The one time I saw a chicken sitting in the bale nest, she got so upset with me she left the nest without an egg.

 

[chardob]

I put ping pong balls into the nests the minute my girls moved from the brooder to the coop, and they're still in the nests. When one of my hens needs to lay, she pushes the ball under her and sits on it until her egg is laid. Maybe it makes them feel comforted to have something under them at such a time, but it worked for me. I have never had an egg laid outside the nest.

 

[karlamaria]

That's the problem with lots of folks who can not get there chickens to lay in the hen house, they have no run. If I were you I would build one and keep them in it until tey lay in the boxes, I had no run to start with, we were findings eggs in the hedges, behind the hedges etc. a run keeps them in and ready to hit the coop where the nest boxes are . Good luck on training them, let us know how that works out I'm anxious to see how you train them .

 

[ChickNhood]

I used a purplr easter egg to train mine where to lay...t to 3 days of confinement should dggs from my 5 hens...just give them plenty of fresh water and you could even place ice cibes or a frozen water bottle to keep water cool...confonement will break the habbito the trick...i would not be too cpncerned with the heat as it was 115 in mine the other day and I got 5 e

 

[Big Sky Chick]

I got a dozen rescue hens last year who had never seen a coop let alone a nest box. We found that the boxes (really large buckets) in a dark, quiet, cool location in the coop with wheat straw helped. We started with putting bread in the buckets to get them in and out. Then I got egg shaped stress balls and put them in the buckets. It took a couple weeks, but even now, two years later, they only want the old black buckets in their huge new coop. (Seen below is the old coop inside the barn)

If it does not seem to be helping, the suggestion of cooping them in is a sound one. Then their hiding places are far fewer. A while of that and they will always come back to their spot. Heck, we get a line that forms for the old black buckets and some will even lay together in the bucket.

Good luck. Never give up. Never surrender.