katiejanechicken
Hatching
- Jan 28, 2021
- 2
- 2
- 3
I am trying to encourage my chickens to lay in their nest boxes, and we had our first egg the other day when it snowed and we kept chickens in the coop until midday. I block the nest boxes at night (they are attached to the coop) but when i unblocked them this morning at 7am, whilst simultaneously opening the door to the outside, the chickens left the coop completley and went about grazing.... completely ignoring the fake eggs I have put in there and the nest boxes completley.
How should i go about training them? is it ethical to leave the chickens in the coop with minimal light (it has a small window, if i open the roof they can fly out) to encourage egg laying in the nests until midday?
Or shall i just let my chickens run free and collect the eggs from around their outside pen?
We are in the UK so it is the end of winter at the moment so realise our chickens are young (22 weeks on average) and it is out of season.... but after our egg the other day, we wondered what to do to get them in good habits of where to lay, (and to start laying!) in the morning.
Thanks so much!
How should i go about training them? is it ethical to leave the chickens in the coop with minimal light (it has a small window, if i open the roof they can fly out) to encourage egg laying in the nests until midday?
Or shall i just let my chickens run free and collect the eggs from around their outside pen?
We are in the UK so it is the end of winter at the moment so realise our chickens are young (22 weeks on average) and it is out of season.... but after our egg the other day, we wondered what to do to get them in good habits of where to lay, (and to start laying!) in the morning.
Thanks so much!