Woo hooo .... I'm a new grandma .... well sort of

[lucygirl63]

Well the first of my 7 chickens started laying today!! I feel like a proud grandma! Lola is a Salmon Favorelle and the sweetest chicken ever but bless her heart, she put her egg in the corner of the coop behind a sack of scratch. I do have three nesting boxes but wondering how I make sure to get them to lay in the boxes from now on? I did put "fake" eggs in two of the boxes to encourage their use but is there anything else I should be doing? Should I leave one of the newly laid eggs in there? I've never seen any of the chickens have any interest in the nesting boxes and they are the prefab gray plastic ones that hang on the wall.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Congratulations!! New layers have a penchant for laying in odd places - I once found an egg in the corner of the garage...they don't have access to the area anymore, but still.

I'd leave the fake eggs in the nest boxes to entice them, and real eggs may also help since hens seem to want to lay where others have (but don't leave the real eggs there for long if you plan to eat them).

I initially put very nice handmade wood nest boxes in my coop - no one used them, so I started using plastic (cat) litterboxes, instead...and they lay in them.

 

[aart]

Sometimes putting them into the nest can get them curious about it.

Those gray nests have kinda of skinny perches, folks have put a 2x4 across them to make them easier to navigate.

 

[lucygirl63]

Great idea regarding adding the 2x4 .... It's true that they don't have a great perch. I may have to play around with the nest box placement in their coop (quite large 10x10' and 8' ceiling) or even try wood boxes. Thanks for the feedback and advice!

 

[aart]

Great idea regarding adding the 2x4 .... It's true that they don't have a great perch. I may have to play around with the nest box placement in their coop (quite large 10x10' and 8' ceiling) or even try wood boxes. Thanks for the feedback and advice!

Don't change too much at once....they don't like change......and give each change a few days to a week for them to get used to each new thing.
First thing I'd do is ad a piece of wood to nest perch using a conduit clamp....should be easy peasey if you are at all handy.
Wood, clamps, couple drywall screws BamDone!