Young hen not roosting

[Dee345]

My young OEGB hen has started laying in the past few days, but she is not roosting. She has a nesting box, but won't use it either. She lays her eggs in random spots around the coop. What can I do to get her to roost? If she doesn't start, we will just gather eggs, but we were hoping to hatch a few chicks. Any ideas or suggestions?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

She's probably not feeling safe or are others harassing her, put some fake eggs or golf balls in the nestboxes to give her the idea, and investigate why she doesn't want to roost. As far as hatching from her when she is ready she will go broody without any encouragement.

 

[chickmomma03]

The one hen out of all of mine that is laying will ONLY lay her eggs in a plastic storage bin I keep the extra straw in. I put other nesting boxes in there yesterday and moved the bin to another area (but I did NOT put the lid on because I do NOT want a repeat of this last week, she went 5 days without laying because I took it away for 1 day), and she STILL went in to lay in it. I give up, she wins, she can lay her eggs in that bin. I will just keep it stocked with enough straw for her to get into it. My other hens all lay and watch her or roost on the ladder and watch her, while my rooster stands next to her chattering back and forth almost as if he's encouraging her. It is really neat, I caught a little of the chatter on video.

 

[aart]

My young OEGB hen has started laying in the past few days, but she is not roosting. She has a nesting box, but won't use it either. She lays her eggs in random spots around the coop. What can I do to get her to roost? If she doesn't start, we will just gather eggs, but we were hoping to hatch a few chicks. Any ideas or suggestions?

I think you have your terms a little mixed up.
'Roosting' is when/where they sleep at night, hopefully not in the nests.
'Brooding' or 'broody' is when they sit on eggs in a nest day and night until they hatch.

A hen won't go broody until her hormones tell her to...leaving eggs in nest won't 'make' her go broody.
But putting some fake eggs or golfs balls in nest night show here that 'here is a safe place to lay'.