Why do my chickens only lay in 1 box?

[Countrylife19]

We had 1 box we built for our eldest leghorn because she was laying. We built 6 brand new nesting boxes for the rest of our chickens who recently started laying. Why is it they only want to lay in one nesting box? Occasionally there is a egg in one of the other boxes. We have paper and a ceramic egg in all of the nesting boxes to encourage laying.

 

[azygous]

Ooh! Ooh! Can I answer that? The answer: Because hens have all voted that nest box is by far the BEST one! How do they know this? Because if it weren't the very best one, they wouldn't all be fighting over it.

It's just chicken psychology, not exactly market testing. Same with humans. If the lead chicken uses that box, then the others follow. If Justin Beiber wears a particular brand of shoes, then all his followers do likewise.

 

[Countrylife19]

Our lead chicken our eldest Elda she is a leghorn does use that box to lay her eggs and she is the boss. Def the alpha hen of the henhouse.

 

[Yukonn15]

My hens all use one box 90% of the time, when they decide to lay they are a bunch of followers, if you give them anything new to eat or drink I always watch to see who the first one to be bold enough to step up is and then the rest follow.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Ooh! Ooh! Can I answer that? The answer: Because hens have all voted that nest box is by far the BEST one! How do they know this? Because if it weren't the very best one, they wouldn't all be fighting over it.

It's just chicken psychology, not exactly market testing. Same with humans. If the lead chicken uses that box, then the others follow. If Justin Beiber wears a particular brand of shoes, then all his followers do likewise.

funny, but much truth.

if they had been using other boxes, suddenly stopped, i'd say look for mites and moisture. but new layers playing follow the leader? perfectly normal

 

[musikfan]

I have two nesting boxes and my girls only ever use the one. They rarely use the other one, though not sure why except "just because". Go figure. Who understands the mind of a chicken??

 

[adstowe]

Because CHICKENS. That's why

 

[629864]

Yup, we have 9 nesting boxes in one henhouse and 5 in the other. We have 16 laying hens (yes, far more boxes than even remotely necessary at this point, but we'll have more layers in another month or so). Anyway, the current layers only lay in one house and of the 9 boxes, only 6 are used, plus they have two favorite spots on the floor in two corners. If a hen needs "her" box and another hen is in it, she'll wait...and wait...and wait...until eventually she's "forced " to lay her egg out in the run or in the middle of the front yard or on the front porch because she couldn't hold it anymore. Because, ya know, the one and only box worthy of laying in wasn't available

 

[Countrylife19]

They started using other nesting boxes due to necessity. We now have between 9 and 12 out of the 19 chickens laying a day

 

[El jimbo]

We had 1 box we built for our eldest leghorn because she was laying. We built 6 brand new nesting boxes for the rest of our chickens who recently started laying. Why is it they only want to lay in one nesting box? Occasionally there is a egg in one of the other boxes. We have paper and a ceramic egg in all of the nesting boxes to encourage laying.

I extended the original nest box they were laying in as there wasn't enough room and it was right near the pooping area and the old saying is they get to nearest egg box which they did ,now they lay further up the nest box away from the pooping area with the odd egg still be laid in old area ,by doing what I have done it gives them more room and my egg production has doubled I also put lavender in my nest boxes it gives them a calming effect