Nesting

Since Houdini the escape artist is laying and probably needs some privacy, I decided to divide the nesting box in two. According to Backyard Chickens, one box is good for 2-4 hens. Originally we built only one large nesting box, but they don't seem to use it much.

Nesting box, before

Houdini laid her egg in this box which is probably big enough for 3 chickens at a time. I added a divider so now it looks like this:

Nesting box, after

I also read that chickens prefer a roost bar in front of the box to jump onto before going inside. There is a 2x4 there now as you can see, but I might add something more substantial in the future. 

View from outside coop-lid lifts up for easy access to eggs.

I also put this flower pot with straw in the coop to give them something to nest in.

Another nesting area in the other corner.

Success! Houdini jumped right in to the smaller box, scratched a bit, then settled in. 

Penny jumped into the other side of the box, but was nosy and wanted to see what Houdini was up to.

 So she just barged in! Not sure if Houdini really appreciated it, but they stayed in there together until I shut the coop door. We'll see how many eggs we get now!

Edit: 2 hours after I made the nesting box I checked inside and there was already an egg! I would call this modification a great success!

Egg number two!

Today started at 5 am. My wife had to go to work so I got up to make breakfast (just a homemade egg wrap that we made a bunch of and froze) and got her coffee ready. Once she was fed and out the door I let the chickens out. I set up my portable fences and dog kennel to give them some grazing time. Since I am working nights I did a few chores then went back to bed.

I was awoken at 11:30 am by something squawking-not extremely loud, but noisy enough for me to notice. It was the same sound she was was making last time an egg came, so I think that played a part in me getting out of bed. I went down to check and I found the escape artist who I have name 'Houdini' under our BBQ. I promptly got her back into the run and hoped she wouldn't get out again.

While she planned her next escape I got an old hanging basket and remove the hanger. I figured if she wouldn't use the nesting box maybe she would use it instead. I filled it with a few heavy rocks (so it wouldn't tip over) and straw. I took it back to the coop and found Houdini in the nest box making a nest. I still put the hanging basket in the coop, hoping it will get used one day, and went to finish my tea. I checked in on her around 12:15 pm and sure enough egg number two had arrived! Perfect shape, no crack, still warm and a little smaller than egg number one.

No clue how she got out of this???

Houdini and her second egg

Egg 1 on top, egg 2 below is slightly smaller, weird...