Chicken Advice for Slacker Hens

My wife and I have a few hens that decided not to use the nest box. The girls then started eating the eggs they would lay outside the box. We added calcium and made sure the hens were getting the nutrition they required but they continued the behavior.

I bought some wooden eggs and put them in the nest box. Problem solved. They began to lay in the box again and stopped eating the eggs.

They have stopped laying for the winter now.

I’m still seeing feathers & hens’ combs are shrunken.
So the moult is still happening.
I feed a “breakfast” of oatmeal (protein) & plain yogurt (calcium) & when I use eggs - from the flock or storebought - the shells get mixed in.
I expect the crazy warm/cold/warm Summer into Fall we’ve had & are still having is playing with their internal clocks.

No sign of eggeating, but I may see if I can find the fake eggs I used 10+yrs ago to get pullets laying in the boxes & put them back.

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I do have egg eaters and nearly never see signs of it. I know you’d expect to see bits of shell or egg innards, but it’s pretty rare the hens miss any of it.

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FWIW, my flock of young pullets will not use a nest box!

I’ve tried several different styles both in and out of the coop and have fake eggs and golf balls. They roll the fake eggs out of the nest boxes and onto the floor of the coop to their designated nest for the day. :woman_facepalming:

Thankfully no egg eating… yet. :crossed_fingers: I only know because I have 4 hens and have 4 eggs most days.

Since finding eggs outside the coop mid-moult, I’m still doubtful any of the hens is eggeating.
If Spring rolls around & still no one lays, I’d blame age before that.
Until then, I guess it’s supermarket eggs for me :disappointed_relieved:
& a hunt for new pullets :grin:

@Texarkana My 1st flock of 6wk pullets was led to using nest boxes by a fake egg.
Haven’t had to use it since, as I’ve gotten older hens, either point-of-lay or laying.
This group was laying well until this year’s moult started.

Those fake eggs used to be called “nest eggs” and are the source of our financial term “nest egg.” Something related to the wooden nest eggs getting more real eggs as a symbol of wealth building or having wealth.

ETA: I thought I saw wooden “nest eggs” in my 1897 Sears catalog, but couldn’t find them just now. They have poultry supplies all over the place – chicken wire in Fencing, leg bands and poultry markers (to punch holes in chickens’ feet between the toes in a pattern as a kind of brand) in Veterinary Instruments, and so on. Made sense to some catalog editor 130 years ago, I suppose 🤷.

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We had white glass eggs, two of them in boxes for 15 layers and they all seemed to know to go lay eggs in there.

Chickens! :woman_shrugging:

I have never had to train my pullets to use the boxes. I have a few who may find another hidden area in the hen house if the boxes are all in use but the eggs never get eaten( thankfully). If they have a spot in the hen house I find acceptable, I just bed it with hay and let them lay there too.