How many laying boxes

Pottery or wooden eggs, one in each nest should encourage the hens to use the nesting boxes. Put a golf ball in each nest. Cheap version of the above. Coop them up for a few days.

Keeping them shut in for a few hours in the morning while they lay eggs may get them into the habit of using the nesting boxes. Chickens mostly lay eggs in the morning so you can let them out as normal in the evening.

Time and patience. Don't rush, it will happen. Borrow a hen that can teach them. So if you have a young flock it may be possible to borrow an older hen to show them how it's done.

Being older she should be able to boss her way straight into the top of the pecking order. One final word of caution - I thought I was doing my chickens a favour by buying some special nesting pads for them to lay their eggs on. They are creatures of habit it seems. Evidently they really liked their pine shavings. They refused to lay an egg on the new nesting pads. So off to the store I go. Now they have their pine shavings back in the nest and they've already laid eggs in the boxes.

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Related Items:. Chicken Saddle In Stock. Poultry Waterer, 2 sizes In Stock. Cozy Coop Heater In Stock. Grit with Probiotics, 5lb bag In Stock. A: With all the investment you've made in your flock, you don't want your precious chicken, duck, or goose eggs to be laid just anywhere in the yard where they can become lost or spoil before you find them. Providing your birds with the correct number of nesting boxes that are sized and situated properly can help ensure that your flocks' eggs remain fresh and clean and are easy to collect in a timely manner.

Nest box needs are different for chickens, ducks, and geese. You can find tips for all three types of birds below. Chicken Nest Boxes Location: Hens like to lay in a dark, safe area that is generally away from the traffic of the flock.

Your nesting boxes should be positioned up off the ground at least a few inches to provide the laying hens with some privacy and to keep other birds from scratching around the eggs, potentially stepping on them and breaking them. Many chicken-keepers raise their nest boxes or coops high enough to keep from having to stoop over so much to collect eggs every day.

This higher elevation also may provide protection from some predators. While chicken nest boxes should be elevated, it is most important that they be lower than the lowest roosting poles in your coop. For security, chickens seek the highest roost to sleep on at night, so if your nest boxes are higher than your perches, it is likely that some of your birds will sleep and poop!

Positioning your nest boxes and roosts correctly will help keep this from happening. Hens may lay anywhere, even in an old sack of bedding! Size: In general all poultry nesting boxes should be cozy without being tight. Since chickens come in many different sizes--from the very large Black Jersey Giant to the tiny Serama and everything in between--you have some leeway when sizing your nest boxes, depending on the breeds you keep.

The smallest box we would recommend for standard-sized breeds would be 10 inches cubed, but most commercial nest boxes for standard breeds are roughly 11 or 12 inches cubed.

A little smaller would okay for bantams; 11" - 12" cubed should be large enough even for bigger birds like Cochins, Orpingtons, etc. I wrote an article on the best bedding material for poultry if you would like to see the different types I have tried in our coops. Firstly, choose a good location. Hens prefer nesting boxes that are private and darker than other areas of the hen house. Choose the darkest wall of the coop.

Next, to get hens using a new nestbox, place it on the floor for the first couple of weeks, then once they are using it, mount it at 50cm approximately 18 inches from the coop floor. Nest box locations just off the floor tend to work better than high places. Try to ensure roosting bars are higher than nest boxes. This discourages hens from roosting in nesting boxes at night.

Sometimes, all it takes for them to start using a nest box is to hang or nail an old sack over the top half of the entrance to make it a little darker and private inside. If you still have difficulty getting your hens to lay in the right place, try to block off the other sites they have found and pop a few rubber dummy eggs into the nesting boxes.

They will think other hens have been laying in there and will usually find it a more attractive option. There is further information on getting chickens to use nest boxes in this article: Chickens Laying Eggs on the Floor. When a hen lays an egg in the nest and the hen leaves, the egg will roll gently into a collection box that stops hens from egg-eating or merely stepping on the eggs. The plastic Chickbox nests here use roll-away nest box inserts. I have found difficulty getting hens to lay on the plastic tray, without any nesting material.

If you add material such as straw, it will block the collection box and stop the egg from rolling away. The best course of action is to use nesting material until hens get used to the new nest.

I have purchased a few different designs; some have been better than others! The plastic Chickbox is available in yellow or brown. They use roll-away trays and the interlock to form a bank of nest boxes.

The rail at the front lifts, so the nest box can be closed off at night if you need to discourage hens from sleeping inside them. They are straightforward to clean. My dislike is the flat top.

Hens can perch on the top at night, making a mess, but if you want to stack a couple of rows of boxes, it does allow you to do that. The Gaun nestboxes are metal with plastic egg trays and front rails. They come flat-packed and need bolting together. The Gaun nesting box also uses roll-away egg trays to prevent eggs from breaking. The plastic rail at the front lifts to reach the eggs and can be removed easily for cleaning.

The roof is sloping, so hens cannot roost on top of them, but this does make it difficult to stack rows of nesting boxes. In this Equipment Focus, I test two ChickBox plastic nesting boxes in one of my coops and find them ideal to stop eggs breaking and easy to clean! How this site works: For the sake of transparency, let me tell you how this website works. A link works in the same way as a normal link, but if clicked, it is tracked and, depending on the scheme, it may generate a small income for the click or a commission.

By: Tim Daniels January 6, Updated: 4 months ago. Guide to Nesting Boxes. How many nesting boxes per chicken?