Yay! First egg! But how to get them to lay in the right place?!

[Flingmoo]

My first ever chickens laid their first ever egg! It's the small one in the picture - next to a large shop bought egg for comparison. (Do they get bigger?!)

Only problem is we blocked off their nesting box as they kept sleeping and pooing in it, and we thought they were not ready to lay yet anyway. But now this has appeared in the roosting area among a pile of poo! I have obviously now unblocked the nesting box but they keep pulling the straw out of it. I don't know how to 'train' them to sleep and lay in the correct places! Have also attached a picture of our coop so you can see how it's designed.

They will always poo and sleep in the nesting boxes IME, particularly as the weather gets colder, and we've had chickens for many years. You just have to keep them well cleaned out and accept that eggs will frequently have poo on them and need to be washed.

You can buy pretend eggs and put them in the nest box to encourage them to lay in the right place. We got ours from Wilko but didn't end up needing to use them. We have to put plant pots in the nest boxes overnight to stop them sleeping in there.

I wouldn't wash any poo off the eggs as I think the washing process makes them more susceptible to bacteria getting in by removing the natural protective coating that they are paid with.

Thanks for the input.

We've had 4 eggs so far - one a day since egg number 1!

The one she laid today is the size of the large shop egg in the photo! I wonder if it's the same one laying or if they've both started now.

We've had 2 eggs in the roosting bit, 2 straight on the ground in the coop, and zero in the actual nesting box... despite putting a fake one in there teach them... the fake one just got pooped on!

Silly chickens....!

I'm so that you have chickens. Would love to have them, but the large gardens at the back of us has urban foxes.

My df's friend used to bring round fresh eggs, and they always tasted exceptional 🐓🍳

That's a shame longdistance. We live in a suburban new-build estate, there are fields and farmland on some sides of the estate. We have never seen any foxes around but that's not to say they won't come. I'm hoping we've fox-proofed the coop enough.

My chickens never sleep in the nesting boxes. They're all on the top two rungs of the roost. Put plastic eggs or golf balls in the nesting boxes and pop the chickens on the roost every night till they get the idea.