WHAT THE FLOCK???

[Katbec]

My girls are old enough to begin laying hopefully at the end of the month or so. I introduced them to their nesting boxes 4 weeks ago. They refuse to keep the bedding in the boxes, dragging the hay and shavings into their coop! Also, they've decided that one box makes an excellent outhouse!! Any suggestions on how to stop this behavior so they don't lay the eggs on the wooden base of the nest box?? PLEASE HELP!!!!

 

[21hens-incharge]

Pics of your set up will help greatly.

 

[aart]

Yes, pics would help immensely here @Katbec

Also, they've decided that one box makes an excellent outhouse!!

Are they sleeping in them at night?

 

[CHlCKEN]

My girls are old enough to begin laying hopefully at the end of the month or so. I introduced them to their nesting boxes 4 weeks ago. They refuse to keep the bedding in the boxes, dragging the hay and shavings into their coop! Also, they've decided that one box makes an excellent outhouse!! Any suggestions on how to stop this behavior so they don't lay the eggs on the wooden base of the nest box?? PLEASE HELP!!!!

sounds like near POL behavior in every aspect! They always treat the nest boxes like something they aren’t. However pooping in them and pulling things out is an issue. Block off the one they are pooping in as soon as possible (it’s ok to be down one nest box, they really only use one of them anyway) and maybe change the bedding in there. Nest box pads are great and clothe ones are nice because you can attach Velcro to them, to make it easy for you to pull them out of the nest box but not easy for the girls to pull out. Plus you can wash and reuse them so it’s cheaper and more environmentally friendly. I only know of one person who does this method so I don’t know if they sell those online, or if you have to make it yourself, but it’s a good option. Let us know what happens once you block off the pooped-in box. And let me know your opinion on nest box pads

 

[CHlCKEN]

My girls are old enough to begin laying hopefully at the end of the month or so. I introduced them to their nesting boxes 4 weeks ago. They refuse to keep the bedding in the boxes, dragging the hay and shavings into their coop! Also, they've decided that one box makes an excellent outhouse!! Any suggestions on how to stop this behavior so they don't lay the eggs on the wooden base of the nest box?? PLEASE HELP!!!!

I will add, are there fake eggs in the boxes? That will encourage them to understand that, that is a safe place to lay an egg

 

[Katbec]

I will add, are there fake eggs in the boxes? That will encourage them to understand that, that is a safe place to lay an egg

 

[Katbec]

OMG!! Thanks first for responding!! Velcro pads!!!! Brilliant!! And fake eggs? Who'd have thought.... Will pink plastic easter ones with no chocolates inside suffice??
Any whose.... here's pic's. No judgy!! This is my first go at chicken keeping since I was a child and it's technically not allowed in my county...shhhhh! So my top notch Amazon coop is a good way to get my feet wet and decide if I'm successful at this and like it, lolol! I only have 3, a barred rock and 2 road island reds. The barred rock is the boss, and most likely the trouble maker.

 

[aart]

Will pink plastic easter ones with no chocolates inside suffice??

Fill them with sand so they aren't so lightweight.
Golf balls work too.

Any whose.... here's pic's.

Here's an excellent modification to that kind of coop:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ng-in-nest-boxes.1134399/page-2#post-17749535

 

[CHlCKEN]

OMG!! Thanks first for responding!! Velcro pads!!!! Brilliant!! And fake eggs? Who'd have thought.... Will pink plastic easter ones with no chocolates inside suffice??
Any whose.... here's pic's. No judgy!! This is my first go at chicken keeping since I was a child and it's technically not allowed in my county...shhhhh! So my top notch Amazon coop is a good way to get my feet wet and decide if I'm successful at this and like it, lolol! I only have 3, a barred rock and 2 road island reds. The barred rock is the boss, and most likely the trouble maker.

Yes I thought the Velcro pads were brilliant to! To bad it’s a DIY thing - here’s what you could do if your like me and don’t know how to sew (or in my case jam up the machine every time without fail): Buy a piece of fleece fabric, and cut it to the size of the nest box. Then buy some of those strong adhesive velcro strips, attach one side of the the Velcro to the nest box, and the other side to the fleece square (make sure the strips line up when you put it in the nest box) I don’t know how well the adhesive sticks to fleece but if it just doesn’t, you can find some alternatives to the adhesive kind (you will need the adhesive kind for the nest box part though so it will stick lol) finally, you can slap that fleece square in the nest box, and repeat the process for all three nest boxes! The fleece fabric can come in all different colors and patterns so that you can make it cute and custom! For the fake eggs, you can order a pack of 10 or less/more on Amazon, the pink one may be a little over the top (don’t think they will recognize it as an egg but it’s worth a shot!) but you can try it for now until you can put some clay/porcelain fake eggs in there- relatively cheap as I recall. You could try some Yellow Easter eggs if you’ve got em! Your set up looks perfect for your number of birds (btw those both happen to be strong layers so they certainly won’t fail to give you some nice eggs!) and nobody’s got a spotless coop! My barred rocks are so full of personality and just love to get in trouble (if you’ve seen my post in the BYC pumpkin carving contest, you will see that one of my BRs helped carve one of the pumpkins in the garden . your not the first to sneak chickens- I mean they’re irresistible!

 

[Katbec]

That's an excellent idea, thank you so much for sharing this idea!!!