Not laying in nest box

[Harmoni]

My one golden comet who has been laying for 2 weeks now has left an egg outside of nest boxes 2 mornings on a row. Yesterday morning, on the landing in front of the nest box and this morning on the poop board. How do I fix this? We have 3 laying hens, one broody with her 2 chicks and 4 9 weekers.we have 3 nest boxes plus the broody's nest. I also have 6 plastic eggs in the nest boxes.

 

[azygous]

Not all hens are fooled by fake eggs. So they may be of dubious value in instructing this wayward novice layer.

This laying season I had a new layer, an EE pullet, that simply could not get the message of laying in a nest. She thought digging a little crater in the sand in the coop in a dark corner was a swell place to lay an egg, so I blocked it off with milk crates.

Then she moved to the opposite end of the coop and attempted to do her crater thing in the dark corner under the nest boxes, so I stuck an Amazon cardboard box there.

Next she started laying her egg on the poop board adjacent to the nest boxes, so I took out the poop board during the morning laying session. It was sort of like herding cattle, gradually closing off avenues of travel until I funneled her into a nest. And it finally worked. She's been laying in a nest box ever since.

 

[cmom]

I have had the same issue too and did the same things. I did different thing to discourage laying in other places except the nest boxes. I put golf balls in my nest boxes and it doesn't matter the amount of nest boxes I have. In one coop I have 16 single nest boxes and one big community nest box but some still wanted to find other places to lay their eggs. Good luck...

 

[Harmoni]

I'm wondering if the box she prefers was just occupied? Yesterday the egg was in front of the box she had been laying in and today it was above it.
Unfortunately, my poop boards aren't removable. And she is laying at or around dawn before I am out there to let them out.
I might try adding more nesting herbs to entice her.
At first I thought she preferred extra padding since she laid 2 eggs in my broody's box before they hatched. I had a non slip shelf liner in there to prevent cracking. So I added liners to all the other boxes and that fixed the problem for almost a week lol.
Who knew chickens were so fickle

 

[cmom]

My one golden comet who has been laying for 2 weeks now has left an egg outside of nest boxes 2 mornings on a row. Yesterday morning, on the landing in front of the nest box and this morning on the poop board. How do I fix this? We have 3 laying hens, one broody with her 2 chicks and 4 9 weekers.we have 3 nest boxes plus the broody's nest. I also have 6 plastic eggs in the nest boxes.

I noticed you live in Florida. I live near ocala. We have a bimonthly farm swap if you're ever in our area stop and say hi. I wear a TSC hat.

 

[CoopsNPoops]

Maybe try adding more natural desireable nesting box material. Its hard to get in a comfortable next shape with flat padding. My girls prefer hay in their nesting boxes. They can shape it how they like and it stays that way. They dont like laying in the boxes that gets to thin or flat, they definitely prefer a good thick layer of hay they can shape and firm to their liking. But sometimes chickens tend to prefer a certain box, and its usually the same box as the rest unfortunately, lol. She very well could just prefer the one broody nest and refuse to lay in another. The plastic eggs could also be deferring her. If they aren't doing any good, id take them out and they can be doing more harm than good. If it was me, id move an egg she layed into a box rather than fake eggs. That may encourage her to know thats where she was supposed to lay it.

 

[cmom]

I have used different things as nesting material. Currently I use pine shavings but I also use them in the coops that have floors as it's easier to clean out the poop when they poop on the floor in the shavings. I have used spanish moss which is everywhere, hay and the shavings.
Spanish moss.

Hay. This is usually the chick/grow-out coop. This gal was broody. When I took her off the nest she was sitting on 18 eggs which I promptly put into my incubator.

 

[aart]

I'm wondering if the box she prefers was just occupied? Yesterday the egg was in front of the box she had been laying in and today it was above it.

Post pic of your nests?

 

[Harmoni]

Post pic of your nests?

She laid in it this morning

 

[aart]

She laid in it this morning

She'll get the hang of it.