When to introduce nest boxes? One of my chickens is sitting on a rock!

[Andora]

Some of my girls are just about at the point of lay. They're about 22 weeks now I think, and their faces are reddening a lot.

I haven't set up the nest boxes yet because with my last flock, the non-laying chickens just kept sleeping in them and pooping all over. When do you set up the nest boxes? Should I wait until I find an egg, then set up nest boxes and put the egg in it? Or go ahead and do it now?

One of my SF's is a very strange chicken. We named her Oddity. She's all the wrong colors for an SF and she has stubby little wings that don't work. She is obsessed with my outdoor cat and follows her around all over, beak to tail. She's so funny. Today I realized she has built herself a nest out of old leaves, and apparently feathers, over in the corner behind the garage. All day she has been sitting in it, then getting up to get a drink and a bite of food, and goes back to sitting. So tonight when it got to be dusk I shewed her into the coop and went and looked in her "nest"....to my disappointment there were no eggs. Instead she has been sitting on a big white rock!

Does this mean she'll be starting to lay soon?

 

[Mourningdove]

You should set them up now! With point of lay it could be anytime and they will look for a spot to lay!

 

[Pepperwolfe]

When we were introducing the chickens to the nest boxes we would stick a white wooden egg in it so they start to get the general idea. How about moving that white rock to the boxes? I remember my parents doing that when I was a kid and now a white golf ball sits in one of the boxes. Although my silly chickens still can't make up their mind if they're laying or not.

 

[Imp]

Oh, come on. Let Oddity hatch the rock.

Imp- feeling strangely maternal today

 

[Pepperwolfe]

Okay so Imp says let her hatch the rock. What kind of chick will it be then? A rock hen?

 

[congdon476]

Quote:
With a name like Oddity, you might just get something hatched!