How to make nesting boxes more attractive to your hens?

[Cheekychook12]

An egg from a young hen who didn’t feel it coming. Didn’t understand what the ‘I feel some something strange/pressure in my poop area ’ meant.

Older hens seem to know and can keep it up for a while, if they want to postpone to lay the egg. Sometimes a hen waits in front of her favourite nestbox if its occupied by another hen.

Yeah my lavender girl was wandering around looking for her straw bag, and I put it in front of her, five minutes later, egg

 

[BDutch]

I did put straw in one of them, but it turns out they like grass the best, I put long pieces curled around in a nest shape and it’s the favourite so far
They also can’t kick it out of the nest
How close do you think this girl is to laying? She’s 17 weeks and growing like wattles and has a red face (the blue one)

Probably several weeks. Fertility signs show before the hen actually starts laying.

 

[BDutch]

Is it in a clean “safe” spot? I regularly clean mine out. Sometimes there’s poop and crushed eggs. I make sure it’s dry and clean in a quiet safe spot.i use nesting pads from amazon which is 10 for $20. It’s soft and dry. They like it.

A nest box doesnt have to be very clean at all for the hens. Buying pads is expensive and isn’t necessary.
Cleaning is mainly necessary to avoid an infestation with parasites.

As a base I use cardboard in winter and a layer of sand mixed with diatomaceous earth (DE) in summer. On top this I add bedding. The bedding varies with the season and can be hay, semi dried lawn grass (summer), dry leaves (autumn), shavings (wet) or straw (cold). Even shredded newspaper is an option.

To avoid a red mite infestation, I do refresh the bedding every week in summer. When the temps rise I make a thicker layer of sand and add more DE into the sand. When its getting hot I leave most of the bedding out.

 

[BDutch]

Yeah my lavender girl was wandering around looking for her straw bag, and I put it in front of her, five minutes later, egg

Your lavender girl definitely knows the egg is coming. She obviously prefers to lay it in the straw bag. If you like her to lay inside the coop, try putting the straw bag in the coop.

 

[Cheekychook12]

Your lavender girl definitely knows the egg is coming. She obviously prefers to lay it in the straw bag. If you like her to lay inside the coop, try putting the straw bag in the coop.

I think I will, I could even line one of the nest boxes with the bag