nesting issues

The hens are not laying much these days. I rarely put light on in the coop, so they do not often get the 14 hours they need to lay consistently. And when I do put the light on it is a 60watt regular bulb - so much of their energy goes into keeping warm.

This I do not have a problem with.

However - they have 2 perfectly good nest boxes inside their coop.

That never have eggs in them.

I have had them on the ground, or raised up on milk crates. I have fluffed them up with fresh straw and moved already laid eggs into them (baiting the tip jar so to speak)


We also have a second outdoor area for them - the duck hutch (that the ducks refuse to use) they instead make a point of scratching out all of the straw and it mostly sits empty.






They like to lay eggs here:
(under the duck hutch)










And here:
(under the ramp to the duck hutch - that's Pippa in the way)

It reminds me of when my brother and I were kids we found a clutch of 25+ eggs behind the woodpile, after days of finding nothing in the accepted nest areas.