How to make nesting boxes more attractive to your hens?

[Cheekychook12]

I have four hens and 7 soon to be laying pullets, I let my chickens free range and they have been laying in different spots every day, I have nesting boxes that they used to use, but don’t anymore
We have many bushes in the yard and they are really tricky to find the eggs, I have to crawl through leaves, sticks and spider webs to get to a single egg, and I recently thought one of my chickens had disappeared, turns out she was nesting in a bag of straw

What can I do to make the boxes more attractive?

 

[Nym]

Mine wants to lay hers in the agapanthus patch .. that's when she decides to lay at all. Yours seems easier going; a covered nest of straw seems to suit her needs?

 

[Cheekychook12]

Mine wants to lay hers in the agapanthus patch .. that's when she decides to lay at all. Yours seems easier going; a covered nest of straw seems to suit her needs?

Maybe her, but they’ve been laying in a different spot each day, usually preferring bushes with leaf litter

 

[Loving my girls]

When Jenny and Norah were little they both made a nest between them in the back of the trailer. We found about a dozen eggs in there
We put a little bench next to the nesting boxes wondering whether they were too high for them and it worked.
Even though they’re bigger now they only use the nesting boxes with the bench.

 

[Nym]

Maybe her, but they’ve been laying in a different spot each day, usually preferring bushes with leaf litter

Unless they are cooped up, most will lay where they want, as far as my experience goes. You could try adding leaf litter to the area where you want them to lay.

 

[Loving my girls]

In answer to your initial question, I like to put lavender in the boxes when it’s the season and rosemary when it’s not.
They probably couldn’t care either way but it makes me feel good.
In the summer I put an ice pack on the lid of each box, I have little straps and a buckle to hold them in place.

 

[Karlkurla Chooks]

I have four hens and 7 soon to be laying pullets, I let my chickens free range and they have been laying in different spots every day, I have nesting boxes that they used to use, but don’t anymore
We have many bushes in the yard and they are really tricky to find the eggs, I have to crawl through leaves, sticks and spider webs to get to a single egg, and I recently thought one of my chickens had disappeared, turns out she was nesting in a bag of straw

What can I do to make the boxes more attractive?

Hahaha! - so cute!


I have this same problem, but I don't mind it.
Two of my hens have a favourite big patch of weeds - sometimes they both lay in the same spot, sometimes in slightly different spots amongst the weeds. You can see Cumin crankily laying her egg below.

One day I could not find one of my chooks and felt distressed that she was missing or dead. Then I heard this loud clucking from a pile of branches and grass - one of my chooks had a big nest of eggs right in the middle! I chuckled out loud - partly from amazement but also relief!

My Clover would fly over the backyard fence to my patio, to lay her eggs on a patio chair! The first time she went broody she was on that chair too - and hatched an egg on it!

For a while three of my chooks actually used the 'Nesting Nook' I had built them - actually the original coop for when they were chicks, and they'd lay eggs in the corner, taking turns.

Then they decided that the pumpkin patch was a better spot!

In the above photo, poor Chamomile was sadly a bit scared due to bullying from another in my flock. So I separated the bully, who promptly began laying inside a cupboard on my front porch! I resolved the bullying and re-integrated all the chickens, but she still lays there each day.




Recently some of my hens were, and are, laying near a corner of the coop where they sleep at night, as the floor is covered in straw.

Here is Chamomile (white Leghorn) laying an egg next to Clover, who is currently broody on a clutch of her (and Chamomile's) eggs.

Chamomile is now laying her eggs in a nest I have set up for her on the opposite side of the coop, using a plastic pot turned on its side. I have a golf ball and a couple of her eggs in there which in this case has worked to encourage her to lay her eggs there.

 

[BDutch]

What can I do to make the boxes more attractive?

Lay two fake eggs in one or two of the good nest-boxes you have.
Post a photo to see if the nest-boxes can use improvement if you like comment on that.

What helped me in the first years I had chickens. :
Lock the chickens up in a coop+run for a few days until they laid a few eggs inside.
If you dont have a run, build one. If its only for temporary use, the chickens don’t need a large run.

Lock the chicken(s) in, every time they lay outside when free ranging. It will improve over time.
Only the wannabe broodies had a tendency to search a nest outside in the first years.

After about 5 years my chickens never lay outside anymore. It seems the oldies teach the young ones to lay inside the coop. Sometimes I find an egg outside the nestbox. But always inside a coop/box.

 

[Perris]

I have four hens and 7 soon to be laying pullets, I let my chickens free range and they have been laying in different spots every day, I have nesting boxes that they used to use, but don’t anymore
We have many bushes in the yard and they are really tricky to find the eggs, I have to crawl through leaves, sticks and spider webs to get to a single egg, and I recently thought one of my chickens had disappeared, turns out she was nesting in a bag of straw

What can I do to make the boxes more attractive?

you might find this article by Shadrach useful
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...e-make-a-sitting-hens-job-so-difficult.74389/

 

[aart]

Free range birds sometimes need to be 'trained'(or re-trained) to lay in the coop nests, especially new layers. Leaving them locked in the coop/run for a week or so can help 'home' them to lay in the coop nests. Fake eggs/golf balls in the nests can help 'show' them were to lay. They can be confined to coop and maybe run 24/7 for a few days to a week, provided you have adequate space and ventilation, or confine them at least until mid to late afternoon. You help them create a new habit and they will usually stick with it. ..at least for a good while, then repeat as necessary.