With just two weeks to go before, by most measures, the egg laying should commence, our four chickens have become decidedly anti-nesting in their dispositions. At 18 weeks they are full grown, combs and all. They just don’t seem to possess a nesting bone between them.
I have been waiting expectantly for some sign that their nesting instincts have kicked in — assuming that this set of behaviors will precede the first eggs dropping. But these pullets appear to be going their own way, perhaps staging a quite impractical rebellion. Maybe I’m associating these chickens too closely with my wife when she was near-term and nursery focused, but doesn’t the description of a pregnant woman having a “nesting instinct” originate with chickens?
Not with our chickens, at least. If my wife had followed their example, our month-old daughter might still be sleeping on the floor of an empty room.
Each week — but particularly these past few as the time to eggs has grown close — I end my coop cleaning by carefully repacking each nest box with straw, ensuring a soft landing for anything laid. And each week our chickens pick and scratch every shred of it out of the boxes and onto the coop floor. Within minutes. Justin, the yellow Buff Orpington, is always the first to redistribute the nests I’ve carefully constructed.
It would be one thing if they were relocating the nests to another part of the enclosure, knowing better than I where they’d prefer to lay. But repurposing the provided nesting materials doesn’t seem to be their aim.
I built their nest boxes according to the characteristics and specifications about which I read: at least 14 inches square with one open side, located in a dim, high, and secure location. While the books recommend one box for every four or five hens, these girls have their choice of three (though they’re likely to choose the one they all snuggled in when they were first transferred to the coop).
Maybe our chickens are just immature. By my count they have two weeks to 20 — two weeks to sync their bodies and minds before we have eggs who knows where and in what condition.
This is when wooden eggs come in handy. Place a couple of wooden eggs in each nest box. This will show them where eggs are supposed to go. They may still kick out the hay, but we haven’t had a problem with this when there are eggs in the boxes.
Remember, it takes less than a day to make an egg. They probably won’t care less about the nest boxes until they come into lay. Don’t worry, they’ll figure it out. I never used wooden eggs, although a friend did, and I don’t think it makes much difference either way. Chickens are usually pretty smart about chicken-y things. With the nest boxes you have, when they’re ready to lay, I’m sure they’ll use them. You may get one or two in a strange places at first, especially if one of your girls gets caught off guard when she first comes online, but they’ll get the idea pretty quickly. My old girls still redistribute the straw a bit from time to time, but I think they’re just having fun with it
I can’t wait to see some (more) eggs! Wooden eggs are an interesting idea. I’d never heard of that, but it does make sense that it might make them stop throwing the straw all over the place. Since there’s four of them, they all might think that someone else laid the egg…
Jason,
Glad to see you are raising chickens. We have had our 4 for about 5 months now and they lay 4 eggs per day. Our yellow buff lays a bluish/green colored one and the other three are brown. You will be so happy to have your own eggs. They taste so much better. Good luck.