After about a week? Only half the eggs were in the nesting boxes. Chickens are supposed to like a dark safe secure place to lay eggs. Yet some of mine would prefer to lay in the corner open bright spot in the coop.
The only thing I could think of is they don't like the hardware cloth on the bottom. I bought some nesting box pads. They are a very thin layer of? A thin straw like substance, that is glued (I assume) to a piece of brown paper. It was the thickness that made me decide to try it. I didn't want something that would keep the eggs from rolling into the egg tray. I put them in the boxes, and they fit perfectly.
The next day all but 2 of the eggs were in the box, but so was all the straw stuff in the egg tray. Good and bad. We are going in the right direction, but the pads were almost $1.00 each. Thought I only intend to use them to get the hens to use the new nesting boxes, I still can't waist $4.00 a day doing it. I pushed the straw stuff back into the boxes, now a wad, removed from the paper.
The next day all the eggs are in the nesting box tray, and so is the straw. I pushed the straw back into the boxes.
We will see what happens in the future. The funny thing is once the straw is off the paper it's almost nothing. Maybe it's less about comfort, and more about being able to move around nesting material, I don't know? If it continues to work, once the pads are gone, I will probably dry some thin weeds out and make my own.
