Three Is Not A Crowd
People always ask me about their hens and nesting boxes. How many nesting boxes to build for their number of hens. Why are all their hens using the same nesting box. Why does my hen lay her eggs outside and not in her nesting box. What are the best measurements for a hen’s nesting box.
My response to everyone is borrowed from a wonderful framed poster I use to have of a colorful caricature of a big sassy reddish brown hen with the saying, “The sun has a right to set where it wants and so may I add as a hen.” I use to interpret that poster as “follow your bliss in lIfe” and “be true to yourself.”
Since I’ve experienced the wonderful world of backyard chickens for the last ten years or so, I realize that poster literally captured the essence of a happy laying hen. They naturally do their own thing, when it comes to laying their eggs.
Reaching into VintageGardenGal archives, I have written a detailed previous post on “Backyard Chicken Coop”, “Nesting Boxes”, with hen to nesting box ratios, measurements, ideal setting, and nesting box suggestions. However, when it come down to the personalities of your hens, they are literally going to lay their eggs where they please.
In general, if you provide a quiet clean side of your coop, protected from bright daylight sun, with nesting boxes slightly off of the chicken coop floor, your hens are naturally going to gravitate to a nesting box, and lay their eggs for you easily and effortlessly. Sometimes there is a favorite nesting box that your hens will prefer. Sometimes they will want to have a party, and all lay together in the same box. The point is with laying hens, just about anything is normal.
You might even have a hen that has a tendency to brood, a hen’s natural way of incubating an egg by sitting on an egg(s) for days on end. If a hen has a healthy fertilized egg, and she sits on it faithfully for 21 days, she will hatch a chick. Hens can have brooding tendency with or without a rooster in the flock, and without fertilized eggs. It is called natural maternal instinct.
Hens work for very hard to lay an egg. Give them the freedom to lay where they like. Please share if you have any funny egg-laying stories from your flock.
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One sunny summer morning, several years ago, we left for church leaving our bedroom window open to allow the lovely breezes to refresh the room.
To our surprise, upon our return home we found that one of our hens had discovered that open window and decided to make herself quite at home. Her name was Goldie (as in Goldilocks) and we felt she was aptly named when we also discovered she had settled down into our bed and there left us a present!
It was an egg, thankfully! ;~P
Raeann, now that is hen hutzpah! Thanks for sharing…VintageGardenGal
Serendipity – I read this post just a few hours after finding our very first egg in our chicken coop. It was laid by Suzie (the only chicken old enough to lay) right in front of our nesting boxes. When I went back to the coop an hour later, I discovered four chickens in one of our six nesting boxes. Maybe the boxes have just become too much of a chicken party place for Suzie to lay her eggs there!
Beth, maybe your chickens are celebrating the first egg. Sometimes they all want to be together in one box. Thanks for sharing…VintageGardenGal
Nice story Raeann… I have also an experience with chicken but it didn’t enter our house instead my dear Push rabbit hutch. If I remember it right, it way my rabbit’s weekly dose (meaning fun in the park) so we went out with its cage. The next thing I know our chicken is already inside the rabbit hutch and couldn’t get out.
Bonnie,
How are all your chickens doing now? We’ve been keeping a light on in our coop 24/7 and our 12 lovely ladies love that. We’re now getting 4 eggs a day and can’t wait until we start getting a dozen.
Beth
Beth, my chickens are doing well. I might suggest you visit this link, http://blog.mcmurrayhatchery.com/2010/10/27/why-arent-my-chickens-laying/. Hens don’t need 24/7 for optimum laying, more like 14 hours/day depending on where you live. You might doing your hens harm by continuous light. Thanks for sharing…VintageGardenGal
I have 1/2 acre with horses and chickens in Chatsworth, Ca.
The hens have beautiful chicken coop with nests that they lay their eggs in, but now I have couple of hens that are sitting. In fact a baby just hatched and we had to help it down. It’s 3 or 4 ft. off the ground.
We did wait 48 hrs. before doing anything as we thought there would be more eggs hatching.
She didn’t like us touching it. How would they normally get down.
I have a ramp, but it’s steem & narrow. A baby couldn’t make it.
Susan, somehow you need to either move your hens and chicks to lower ground, or provide some sort of easy ramp or passage for those chicks. Your new chicks will need to find their water and starter chick mash easily to be healthy and grow strong. Thanks for sharing…VintageGardenGal
We have had two of our six hens sitting and today I go outside to find all six hens in one box! They’re driving me nuts and I assume there is no way to stop them. There are 3 other perfectly good boxes for them to lay in. Oh and I have the photo to prove it! Thanks
Cindy, some days your hens will just want to be all together in their nesting box. It is just hens being hens. Enjoy… VintageGardenGal
I have 6 laying chickens. They all lay in the same nesting box even though they have many to choose from. I tried to trick them one day. I moved a freshly laid egg to a different box. Sure enough the next chicken (a younger one) laid in the new box, but my old chicken wasn’t tricked she pushed the eggs back into the old box. I just let them lay where they want to now.
Cathy, you are correct in letting them lay where they want. It is not uncommon for a flock of hens to lay in the same box. Thanks for sharing….VintageGardenGal
okay….so i dont have a coop, my chickens free roam. All my chickens mostly spend there time by most dogcage in the tree beside it. But i only have one that lays now i think.( i have 2 hens)and a bunch of roosters…i know its mixed up but im not separating them now….Anyways…she lays all around the dogcage and by the trampoline and everywhere…if i gather them and put them in a little nest on the ground will she start laying there and start to sit on them…by the way shes a banny hen!
I have had chickens for years and have found that if you put several of those decorative ceramic eggs in each nest it gives the hens a choice of nests to lay their egg in that already has egg in them, so they spread out some. The fake egg is also great for sneaky snakes that eat eggs, they can’t pass the egg or spit it back out so the snake will die. When you want a hen to go broody that has that broody instinct in her, you add a fake egg for every real egg she lays and take the real egg in, put it in a cardboard egg carton point side down, and rotate daily. Make sure you write a date on each egg to know how old it is with a pencil and don’t keep any eggs longer than 7 days for laying. When she sees there are enough eggs to start brooding, I wait till she stays on the eggs constantly for several days to make sure she is going to stay broody, then I replace the fake eggs for the real ones at night because they don’t see as well at night so she is less irritated. I make sure to note on the calendar when I set the eggs so I know when to expect them to hatch. Occasionally when I catch her off the nest I inspect the eggs to make sure none have been added by others or any broke and to see if the same amount of eggs are in there that I set under her. This turned out longer than I meant it to, but when I get talking about chickens I tend to get carried away.
Wow, thanks for the details and sharing…VintageGardenGal
When our Jersey Giants started laying in July we had one hen that jumped up onto a table by the kitchen door and started scratching at the plastic tablecloth. Needless to say, that did not make me happy so my husband put a nest box where she was scratching and now we get an egg everyday! Can’t get better service than that
Elaine, wow, thanks for sharing….VintageGardenGal
I am making plans to build our chicken coop and have a couple quetions. The roost and nests need to be fully enclosed with a window? Where should this window be and about how big should it be if I have 5 chickens? And I am seeing that I need some sort of light that I need to leave on at night? What type of light is this and where should it be placed? I am a complete beginner…Please help!
Ashley, I suggest you read the posts from my “Chicken” category, on the left side bar, on my home page, http://www.vintagegardengal.com. I have written extensively with photos on my coop, raising backyard chickens, etc. All of the information is there for you…VintageGardenGal
Bonnie,
I have not yet got any chickens, nor a coop but I have been planning and I am having a coop specially made and now I am onto planning my flock. In my village, the rules are “No Roosters” by the way. As I am a beginner, I have limited it to 6 hens and that is it. I love chickens as they are so funny and adorable little things but the eggs are a bonus too! My mother (she lives with me) is not too keen on chickens (God knows why!) so we have made a deal that as long as they produce enough eggs to give to friends, family and neighbors, then she is all for the idea. My flock, so far, is ..
1 x Silkie
1x Lincolnshire Buff
2x Rhode Island Reds
In your experience, which chickens lay most eggs or which chickens are more friendly towards me and each other. If you can suggest another chicken breed to have two of, that would be fantastic! Preferably not Leghorns.
Also, how many eggs a day do you suggest we will find in the nesting boxes with the flock that we have chosen and if you think there would be a problem with our flock then I would be so so so grateful. Thankyou for reading my questions x
Isme, Buff Orpingtons are a nice friendly breed. It is always best to try and get your flock at about the same ages, at about the same time. You will have more success in having them get along that way.
Hens egg their eggs generally in a bell curve, the most eggs their first two years of production, and gradually you taper off. I suggest you read up more on the breeds you like, for more info. Thanks for your comment…VintageGardenGal
My parents have had a yard for a chickens for years and have one aptly named “One-A-Day”. Everyday, One-A-Day clambers in the lawn mower bag, lays an egg, and then claws her way back out!
Nikki, thanks for sharing this. Now, I’ve never heard of a hen laying in a lawn mower bag…VintageGardenGal
Last May I got 22 chicks and have patiently but anxiously been waiting for them to start laying. This morning Hillary laid the first egg. I found her in a nesting box when I went into the coop so I sat on my little stool to watch her. As I said I was anxious. At first she was placing the shavings around herself, then she got still and closed her eyes. Her comb and wattles turned pink so I figured she was getting close. Then she jumped out of the nest, got a drink of water, and walked over to me. She then squatted down and popped the egg out right at my feet!
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