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[JoshBrickstien]

Every time I use nest boxes, the chickens lay one clutch of eggs, and then I have to deconstruct the next box and reconstruct it to make them lay eggs again. What's up with that? I can wait years and they lay none. Yet the second I rebuild the box, they all rush to lay more eggs. Am I doing something wrong?

Edit: After one season, it changes to "Nest box unclaimed"

[Garath]

are you collecting the eggs or hatching them? Maybe when you forbid the eggs you accidentally forbid the nest box? Don't kow if they'd still deconstruct it in that case though, so something else may be happening. It's not something I currently recall from before.

[JoshBrickstien]

are you collecting the eggs or hatching them? Maybe when you forbid the eggs you accidentally forbid the nest box? Don't kow if they'd still deconstruct it in that case though, so something else may be happening. It's not something I currently recall from before.

No, it happens even if I don't forbid the eggs. Especially if I don't forbid the eggs, actually. But either way, I made sure I didn't forbid the boxes. Nothing.

[WoobMonkey]

Silly question, maybe, but are the nest boxes in range of any {i}-[p]en/pasture you may have put your hens in since building them?

[JoshBrickstien]

Silly question, maybe, but are the nest boxes in range of any {i}-[p]en/pasture you may have put your hens in since building them?

Yes, why?

[WoobMonkey]

Because I've made the mistake of designating a pasture that was a tile short of where I actually placed my nest boxes before.

Your fowl may be interfering with each other's claims.  Have you tried designating a 1x1 pasture over each individual nest box, 1 for each female fowl?

[Stormfeather]

You've absolutely sure the hens aren't laying? The dwarves can be pretty quick to run and grab the eggs sometimes to stock them once they're laid.

[FrankMcFuzz]

I always put them in a room with their nest boxes and lock the door for a while :3

[Urist McPanzerbeard]

I always put them in a room with their nest boxes and lock the door for a while :3

Yeah, that's the failsafe way to do it, I find. I usually lock in half my turkeys in a "birthing room" with a locked door, then when the poults have hatched, unlock the door and pasture the poults in a different room, to be butchered when they've grown up. I also have another room with the remaining turkeys with a passable door, so I've got a good supply of both meat and eggs.
Just remember to unlock the door eventually, or you'll end up drowning in chicks

[Garath]

if you want, you can put the poults in a cage. Creatures grow normally in cages and they don't need to graze