Favorite nesting box...

[mychickensrock]

We have 12 girls. Only 8 are laying now. I think. We regularly get 2-3 eggs a day now. Just found out one of our bantams is still laying and NOT in the box. Anyway, the issue is that they all seem to want the same nesting box. This morning, Not Spur was in there and Chickpea and Leopard were waiting in line, literally. There was a perfectly good box open with no takers. I even brought in our big Rubbermaid nesting box. No takers on that one either. So, I had all these girls bawking to lay an egg, and none willing to get in the open box. What can I do?

 

[mychickensrock]

bump!

any ideas out there?

 

[tim_TX]

Make sure the boxes are in a darker part of the coop. Chickens instinctively want to hide their eggs in a safe place, and a dark out of the way spot will almost always be the favorite. Also, the height of the nest can discourage some layers. I use 10 hole kuhl nests and the bottom rows of the nests typically contain 50% more eggs. My lowest holes are 8 inches off the floor.

 

[Ol'FashionHen]

Well...my silkie was the first to lay and would lay in any corner of the coop, but now since my standards have begun to lay and they lay in the same coveted nest she will actually lay in front of the said nest

. I've always heard they all want the same box and a few will even get in there together...

good luck and they do prefer a dark spot.

 

[ebonykawai]

That's just how they do it. I have 3 nest boxes for 10 hens, but they all use only the bottom one. Once they see others laying there, they assume it's a safe place and then they all want to lay there. I even have plastic eggs in the other 2 boxes but, nope, they all lay in the one.

 

[pawsplus]

Don't know if this will help, but this is the best nesting box I've used. It's really a cat litter box, but they LOVE it.

It's this box -- I got it at Petsmart:

http://www.petco.com/product/9965/Booda-Dome-Covered-Litter-Boxes.aspx

They seem to like the rounded shape and it's a great size. The top just lifts off so you can collect eggs. We are all HUGE fans of it at my place!

 

[mychickensrock]

The 2 boxes are in a the darkest part. They will lay in the other box, but all prefer the one. I have just never seen them stand in line to get to that box. Now, we've got an EE that doesn't seem to know how to lay in the box. We found one in the run and she laid one in the tractor just a few minutes ago. She was one of the girls in line this morning too. I also think she may be eating some of the eggs too. I saw her pecking really hard at the fake eggs in the nests this morning. ugh!

 

[davidb]

mine also seem to want the same box they change around from nest to nest,just playing follow the lead hen I guess

 

[kbarrett]

Quote:
Mine do the same. Some days there's eggs in all 4 boxes, or like yesterday there was 9 in one box in 2 in another.