My eco solution to rat problems

[ChucksNZ]

Any tips on getting a chicken to use the nesting box in the Eglu Cube?

Hilda free ranges all day with her best pal Gladys, and they both happily go to bed in the Cube every night without any fuss (it took them a few days to get used to it, but they seem to love it now).

Gladys always lays her eggs in the nesting box, but Hilda likes to drop them everywhere. I’ve had her for just over a year, and she’s always been that way.

I have lots of wood shavings in the nest box, and have even popped a couple of fake eggs in there to try and encourage her, but she prefers to lay al fresco, in a different place every time. She sees a nice flower bed, and she’s straight in there. I often find the eggs days later, in all manner of strange places.

Any ideas, or maybe it’s just too late to change her ways?

[soapdragon]

It may be too late......but do you know what time of day she lays? If it's early could you keep her in the cube until she has laid? 

[ChucksNZ]

Unfortunately, there’s no pattern to when she lays, just like there’s no pattern to where she lays.

it can be literally any time of the day! I’ve seen her laying at all times from very early morning through to late afternoon. She’s a Polish chicken, and they’re not prolific layers. She does lay most days during the height of summer (it’s summer now here in New Zealand), but it’s usually more than 24 hours between eggs.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

[mullethunter]

I’m not sure there’s a lot you can do about this. When mine have the free range of my largish garden hardly any of them lay in the Eglu unless the weather is consistently awful. This summer I regularly had no eggs for a few days and then found a clutch of several under a shrub somewhere.

[ChucksNZ]

11 hours ago, mullethunter said:

I’m not sure there’s a lot you can do about this. When mine have the free range of my largish garden hardly any of them lay in the Eglu unless the weather is consistently awful. This summer I regularly had no eggs for a few days and then found a clutch of several under a shrub somewhere.

I suspect you're right.

I spotted Hilda sitting behind a Yucca this morning, and sure enough, there was an egg 10 minutes later. She seems happy, so I'm not too worried!