ROOSTER-HEN INTERACTIONS

[centrarchid]

You may be able to simply place a new nest in location hen currently using. I use as follows.

Sides low so hen more likely to think she is in same location.

 

[LarryTX]

Thank you, that's a good idea. All si have to do is sneak one of my wife's baskets. She doesn't ever go out to the pens anyway.

 

[centrarchid]

Plastic dish pans work just as well but use the shallowest you can find. They are less costly. Basket above used as much for photogenic needs as anything else. I have played around experimenting with various containers and media for use as nesting material. Materials found to work include soil such a silt loam, pea gravel, cracked oyster shell, sand. kitty litter, and grit. Birds are hard wired to loss for elevated natural depressions before anything else. Fish I work with do exactly the same.

Also consider black oil pans. Small hens will use 5-gallon bucket bottoms as nest sites.

 

[LarryTX]

Plastic dish pans work just as well but use the shallowest you can find. They are less costly. Basket above used as much for photogenic needs as anything else. I have played around experimenting with various containers and media for use as nesting material. Materials found to work include soil such a silt loam, pea gravel, cracked oyster shell, sand. kitty litter, and grit. Birds are hard wired to loss for elevated natural depressions before anything else. Fish I work with do exactly the same.

Also consider black oil pans. Small hens will use 5-gallon bucket bottoms as nest sites.

Thanks for sharing your information. It will save me a bunch of trial and error.

 

[centrarchid]

One more thing, do not place previously laid eggs into nest until hen goes through cycle to prepare nest and lays first egg directly into nest. My hens must go through cycle in first day to scratch out bowl and place vegetation around perimeter. If egg(s) present before that starts, then they may be buried which can cause problems later.. Once first egg deposited in nest, then you can add previously laid eggs.

Another consiration as hatching time approaches is I would then move hen and nest to a new location where chicks can not fall away from nest. I even make so nest is the lowest point in a larger box so chicks do not get away from hen when it gets cold. That is a reason why my favorite nesting sites are either bottom of barrels or simply on a large flat surface covered in hay or straw like in a loft. Barrel obviously require pulling chicks out for hen.

My ideal nest sites in barn can be moved a couple feet each day and hen will lead brood back into it each night as if it had not been moved.

 

[LarryTX]

One more thing, do not place previously laid eggs into nest until hen goes through cycle to prepare nest and lays first egg directly into nest. My hens must go through cycle in first day to scratch out bowl and place vegetation around perimeter. If egg(s) present before that starts, then they may be buried which can cause problems later.. Once first egg deposited in nest, then you can add previously laid eggs.

Another consiration as hatching time approaches is I would then move hen and nest to a new location where chicks can not fall away from nest. I even make so nest is the lowest point in a larger box so chicks do not get away from hen when it gets cold. That is a reason why my favorite nesting sites are either bottom of barrels or simply on a large flat surface covered in hay or straw like in a loft. Barrel obviously require pulling chicks out for hen.

My ideal nest sites in barn can be moved a couple feet each day and hen will lead brood back into it each night as if it had not been moved.

That is interesting and I appreciate it.