This whole dream to own our own farm started 5 years ago in the suburbs of Southern California with backyard chickens and now we’re living in Arkansas living out our dreams. One of my favorite things to do is to collect eggs and when our chickens started laying a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t wait to get the eggs with Oakley every day. I knew she would enjoy it as much as I do!
There was one problem though, our chickens weren’t laying in their nesting boxes. They were laying wherever they felt like it. It was still hot and there was no telling how long they had been there so we didn’t feel comfortable eating them. It was like a treasure hunt every day.
One mistake we made was not putting shavings in their nesting boxes soon enough. My advice to you is to make sure you have shavings in the boxes ahead of time. Shavings will also help with keeping the eggs clean when they lay them.
We were so excited our chickens started laying but we were bummed they weren’t laying in their nesting boxes. We decided to try putting the eggs we found around the farm in their nesting boxes to encourage them to lay in them. Before we placed them in the nesting boxes, we marked them with sharpie so we knew which ones were old and which ones were new. It didn’t take long and our chickens were laying in their nesting boxes! You can buy fake eggs at places like Tractor Supply and Atwood’s but we decided to use the eggs we already had.
If you have any tips on getting your chickens to lay in their nesting boxes, leave it in the comments below!
I'm Courtney, a wife and mom that lives on a farm in rural, Arkansas. I hope you enjoy my farm life, gardening skills, natural living tips, recipes from scratch, and DIY projects!
You make it look so easy, and really fun at the same time! Love the chicken’s “hairdo” or “feather-do” a lot!
Thank you! Those are silkies, my favorite breed 🙂
Oh my goodness! This is awesome. I can’t wait to get some land & just live off-grid. Thanks for sharing!
Now that is one cute chicken egg gatherer!!
This is gold – crazy how simple it is too! I’ll definitely be sharing with my mom. She has some chickens and is saying how she keeps finding eggs everywhere.
My chickens have been laying them in all sorts of random places. I think I can afford to leave a few in a nesting box to see if they will follow along and lay them where I want. Great tip!
OMG! This looks like so much fun. And your tips are fantastic and super simple and easy (something we all thrive for these days)
OMG! This looks like so much fun. And your tips are fantastic and super simple and easy (something we all thrive for these days)
I would love to have chickens. I just don’t know where to begin.