When to Open Nesting Boxes? (also, what type of fake egg)

[Pentatonchix]

Hey Everyone,

I have five chicks who just turned 16 weeks old yesterday. In our coop, we have blocked off the nesting boxes (so the chickies don't go in and sleep or poop). When should we unblock them and fill them with shavings? Also, what should we put inside so the chicks know where to lay? We're thinking golf balls, but what works the best?

Thanks!

 

[KarynVA]

My pullets are 17 weeks old and one of the 3 is just now starting to show a reddish comb and wattles. The other 2 are still quite pale. So I think mine have another 2-3 weeks to go, at least. I plan to open the nesting boxes sometime in the coming week so they have time to get used to them/ explore/ novelty to wear off before real egg laying starts to happen.

I bought a couple of ceramic eggs; but I understand you can use anything really. Golf ball, round rock, whatever you have.

 

[RubelliteRose]

We unblocked our nest boxes and added shavings when ours turned 17 weeks. They then proceeded to kick all the shavings out of the boxes... I didn't add more until the first one started squatting a couple of weeks later.
We also placed egg sized oval white rocks in the boxes. They seem to have worked well. 5 of our chickens have been laying for 2-3 weeks and will now come in to the nest boxes even when free ranging

 

[britinpa]

I'm in the same situation too. Ours turn 16 wks next week, and I'm at the point of trying to decided when to unblock their nesting boxes. We have 6 boxes and I only have a couple of the imitation eggs. Will prob. do it before 17 wks. We still need to get locks for nesting box to prevent any predators from getting in that way.

 

[Tom Kathleen]

I've even used plastic easter eggs (just tape them shut). They don't really care what color anything is, as long as it isn't bright red. The easter eggs were a lot cheaper than the ceramic, but they do blow around if the coop is completely open.

 

[Ridgerunner]

With my first flock I started out with the nests open. The chicks were five weeks old when they had access. Now that I have an established flock the nests are always open so the hens can lay.

Often pullets will start looking for a good place to lay about a week before they actually start. Not all do this but a lot do. If you have the nests blocked when they are looking you may be teaching them to not lay in the nests.

Part of that looking for a good place to lay involves scratching in the nest. If you find your bedding or fake egg on the coop floor it usually means your nest design is not great. You may need to raise the lip a few inches higher to stop them from scratching things out. I'd like to know that so I can fix it before real eggs wind up on the coop floor.

There are always exceptions to any of this, but if your roosts are higher than the nests and you have adequate roosts they are almost never going to sleep in the nests. If they do sleep in the nests there is a reason. I'd like to find that out so I could fix it before I start getting poopy eggs. They could move to sleeping in the nests after they start laying just as easily as before they start laying.

The earliest I've had a pullet start to lay is 16 weeks. That's only been a couple. most wait longer than that. I see no benefit in waiting past 16 weeks to open them up. I do see benefits to having them opened earlier.

I personally use golf balls as fake eggs. You can get wooden or ceramic eggs that look really real. I tried plastic Easter eggs, taping and gluing them shut. I put sand in them to add some weight as they chickens really scratched them around as they are so light. After a while the tape or glue failed so I switched to golf balls. Some people with bantams have used ping pong balls.

 

[April0617]

I found three egg-ish shaped rocks and put one in each box