What is she doing?

[alwayswantedchicks]

My hens are just beginning to lay eggs (our first!). They've been visiting the nest boxes often, checking them out. We've found one perfect egg (the first one) and one very thin shell of an egg out in the open area of the coop. Today I was hanging out at the henhouse with them, was standing on the outside 16' away from a hen (at the other end of the house looking through). She went into the nest, shifted the straw around a bit, got back out, and stood on the 'step' in front of the nest boxes and pulled straw out of the nests as though she was trying to tuck it under her wings. She continued doing this for at least 5 minutes until she had a large pile of straw at her feet. Poor thing. Is she just very confused as to the change that's happening to her and doesn't know what to do?

 

[faykokoWV]

They do seem to get a little confused when they first start laying. Try putting a golf ball in the nest or take an egg you found and mark it then put it in the nest. This kind of gives them an idea of where its supposed to go.

 

[alwayswantedchicks]

Yep, she definitely seems confused. When I built the nest boxes Memorial Day weekend, I put a ceramic egg into each nest back then, just in case, so they'd get used to seeing eggs in a nest. The first egg was indeed laid in a nest box right beside the ceramic egg. What a cool surprise. It's just weird that she's picking up pieces of straw with her beak and trying to tuck them under her wing and/or onto her back. Of course each piece then fell to her feet. She finally gave up and went outside. It almost was like watching her try to cover herself.

 

[Intheswamp]

Hmmm, you might try tacking a short curtain across the front of one of the next boxes and see if she prefers that box....some jungle-bird instinct may be coming out in her making her want a more hidden nest and she was feebly attempting to build a nest around her. Might even tack a cloth at four corners to the ceiling of the box letting it drape down a touch...would make a "smaller" nestbox...more cozy.

Just my chicken brain thinking....

Carry on...

Ed

 

[alwayswantedchicks]

Ok, that sounds like a good idea. I have six nest boxes. Do you think I should just try that on half of them to see what happens? If I tack a curtain up, do you mean let it come down half or part of the way down as in length over the opening to the box? Will that make it difficult for the hens to go to and from the boxes?

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
Tack one edge of a piece of dark cloth to the top of the nestbox opening and let it hang down about 1/2 the distance to the bottom of the box...basically creating a short curtain effect. I'd just try it on a couple of the nestboxes and see how it works, if the chickens seem to prefer the darker nestbox then you might want to do the others. Normally hens like a dark, solitary place to lay their eggs.

ETA: You might want to slit the "curtain about 1/2 way up so it will pose less resistance to the hen as she enters the nestbox. Just a thought.

Ed

 

[alwayswantedchicks]

Thank you for the advice. I'll do that today (worked late yesterday). I got an egg yesterday! a perfect egg!!
The girls are spending a lot of time in the nest boxes. They go in, sit a while, stir up straw, go outside, go back inside and look...totally cool. And noisy!!!!
Thanks again.