Chicken Nest Box Dilemma! Where Are The Eggs?

So you think you will have some backyard chickens.

And you will get some great pets and some eggs.

But wait a minute!

Where are all the eggs?

The chicken nest box dilemma.

Eggs In The Chicken Nest Box

Sounds easy enough doesn’t it…

Do you think, just because you build your chicken house and chicken coop, that you are automatically just going to find the chicken eggs in the nesting boxes you have built?

Think again…

It is not a natural thing to think that your pullets are going to lay their eggs in the nesting box just because it is there.

If you have just bought a new batch of laying pullets about to lay for the first time for you.

You might have missed the memo…

And that is that a new pullet is young and if you don’t have any other laying hens in your hen house.

How are they to know where to lay their eggs?

Their natural instincts are to lay their eggs in a hidden place on the ground.

Don’t just think because they are chickens that they are going to know straight off that this is where they need to lay their eggs.

No…

You need to get it out of your head that chickens know straight away to lay their eggs in a nest box.

Because they are told they are backyard chickens…

Sure…

You have your nesting boxes for chickens all lined up.

You look at the new hen and then look at the nesting box, and automatically think they are going to walk straight in there and lay an egg for you.

I can tell you from experience that this is not going to go smoothly.

Learning By Example

I have talked about chicken nest box size in previous articles, but what I have not talked about with you so far, is actually how to get your chicken to lay in that nest box…

There are a few scenarios there:

• You have new young laying pullets about ready to lay for the first time.
• You add young laying pullets to an existing flock of laying hens.
• You raise up some pullets from your own flock and they are ready to stat laying.

Let’s talk about these different scenarios:

You Have New Young Laying Pullets About Ready To Lay For The First Time

As I have said before, these young pullets are entering a new stage of laying for the first time in their lives.

They have this to think about, apart from worrying about where to lay their eggs for the first time.

And their minds are not thinking the same as you.

Often, as first time laying pullets, they have no guidance from watching other hens laying before they are ready themselves…

So they need to be shown where to lay their eggs if they have no other experienced hens to watch.

Everything learns by watching, the same as we do.

See also Great Advantages Of Having A Deep Litter Chicken Coop
So…

You need to be the teacher.

More often than not, you will find that the first little eggs that they lay, will not be in the chicken nest box.

They will be somewhere in the dirt of the chicken run.

Maybe in a corner on the bedding in the chicken house.

Don’t be surprised…

You Add Young Laying Pullets To An Existing Flock Of Laying Hens

Apart from learning how to get on the pecking order of this new flock, they also have to contend to the next chapter of their lives.

Becoming a productive laying hen.

The advantage you have here that you did not have in the other scenario.

Is that chickens watch each other and learn.

The young hens will learn by example from the other older, more established hens and where they should be laying their eggs.

I am not saying that it is going to be straight forwards for your young pullets right from the start.

More often than not, you will find that their first eggs will be laid outside, or you might need to go hunting for them.

This will change as they become more familiar with laying, and also seeing that there are in fact eggs in the laying box.

Yes, they will see them in the laying boxes, as they are curious animals and will venture all over their new home.

Every crevice and corner again, and again and again…

You Raise Up Some Pullets From Your Own Flock, And They Are Ready To Start Laying

Again…

If you bring in new pullets you have raised, they are new at all of this.

You just can not say to them pointing at the nesting box.

That this is where they should be laying.

I have already done this…

And it does not work.

They have one advantage though…

They have grown up with their surroundings, and know where everything is.

They have been watching all the other chickens going about their lives.

And have seen hens laying eggs in their nesting boxes all their lives.

Do you think they are going to just get in there and lay for the first time?
Not always sorry to say.

It’s not that the hens are being a bit dim…

You need to think of this from the hen’s point of view.
You know that they are backyard chickens.

That they are here not only to be pets but lay for you.

So how are you going to get around letting them know all of this?

You are not in the jungles of Indonesia or Asian anymore hen.”

Getting That Chicken Coop Nesting Box Working For You

Right!

Now, to get your pullets to lay in the nesting boxes you have made or bought especially for the occasion.

And inviting the hens to participate…

There are reasons that a chicken might go of and lay somewhere else.

See also The 7 Things Your Chicken House Plans Must Provide
But once your hens know the best place to lay their eggs, they will mostly do this.

So, you won’t have to worry about searching for those eggs in all sorts of spaces around your chicken pen and also your chicken run.

Hopefully, your young hens will learn from their older hen counterparts.
But there is a trick to help them along.

I do not know if you have heard of false eggs before, but they can be bought from a hard wear store for instance…

They look exactly like an egg, I have only seen them in a white colour.

And they are of plastic, hard enough that when your chicken lays on it, it will not go flat.

Now that would be no good, would it?

Put a few of these in the nesting boxes to encourage the new hens to lay in the boxes.

I know that other hens leave their eggs in the boxes.

Why can’t the pullets just see these you say…

Well…

For one thing…

You want to collect them and they are somewhat fragile.

So you don’t want to be training your new pullets with an egg that you would rather see in on the table, not a smashed egg in the nesting box.

Messy business when you have to clean it all up.

And, these false eggs are always in the nesting boxes, so that at any time your pullet comes towards the nesting box and feels the urge…

She will want to lay that egg with that other egg.

Get your pullet and show her the egg in the chicken nest box, spend a little time with them showing the nest boxes off.

With an egg in there, they should soon get the idea.

Yes!

They do remember.

That chicken nest box is for laying in, not just for decoration.

I have found that, with patience, this will help, and soon enough…

You will have all your hens mainly laying in their nest boxes.
I did say most of the time.

As there will be times when there are mishaps.

But you will mainly have ”all your eggs in one basket…’

Get it?

From your chicken nest box haven.

That is good enough.

It is a simple enough solution.

But there are people out there that think that a chicken should know all this from the perspective of a human.

But think about it for a minute.

These chickens have come into our lives by our own wills, not theirs.

They do have a past, an instinctive past that is still somewhat hard-wired in their brain.

And changing this even after all these years of domestication is still going to be that little bit of a challenge.

Yes, that chicken nest box dilemma…

Is not just going to go away because you think it should not be there in the first place.