Nest boxes for picky chickens...a little vent

[2dream]

I have 20 +/- hens that all liked to lay in the same box. Solution - I took an old speaker box - you know the kind the kids build to go in the trunk for those thumping sounds. Anyway, I put short dividers inside and made 3 large laying areas. In another corner exactly opposite from that box I used an old night stand laying down. (It was handy and of no use). I put a short divider in it as well. That gave me 5 nest boxes. The first day all the hens wanted to lay in the speaker box but that was ok because it had 3 nest in it. So instead of everyone being stacked on top of each other they were able to lay beside each other. That afternoon when I gathered eggs I left one egg in each nest and placed 1 egg in each of the other 2 nest across the coop.

Now they all lay in the nest boxes. I usually get 4 or 5 eggs from each box daily.

Note - In the beginning I had 20 hens. Killed a few for dinner, lost a few to a hawk, then after a couple of hatches I have no clue how many I have now.

 

[eggs4sale]

Build a conveyor belt nest box, set to 'slow' speed.

 

[freemotion]

My girls cooperated for a long time, then when changes started happening in their world a little too rapidly....horse died, got another goat, and another goat, and another goat, turkeys, guineas, more hens, more hens, more hens......well, they lay eggs all over now. I put a rubber feed tub under the nest boxes to contain all the eggs they were laying there. I check the goat's stalls daily, if I don't, the goats try to hatch the eggs and break them.....well, really, the hens lay the eggs where the goats like to sleep. I also have to search my hay storage room and the hay racks and the brush along the fence...guinea eggs.

They found a new hiding spot, because I have over 20 hens and have been getting only 5 eggs the past 3 days.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Nothing like trying to find that new nest spot. We had a hen that would move the nest spot every time we found it. Very frustrating.
We usually find all the eggs in one box also. But they will switch boxes. So for a day or so I will get eggs in two different boxes and then they will all lay in the same new one. Right now I only have three laying hens, but that'll change in a few months.

 

[Javamama]

Build a conveyor belt nest box, set to 'slow' speed.

Trying to imagine that...

It turns out that I have at least 3 bullies and after all the squabbling yesterday they still all ended up in the same corner. Looked like a wrestling match at times. The new boxes in the other corners are being used by 2 girls and the rest carried on making all kinds of noise while impatiently waiting for the "good" box. I'm thinking about trying some curtains, but worried that they will just tear them down and eat them. They tore up the vinyl flooring and ate it so I had to remove it all.

 

[eggs4sale]

Curtains and vinyl flooring? That sounds nicer than MY house, never mind the chickens.

When I first read "curtains", I pictured a chicken in a voting booth.