She sits in the nesting box, then eggs appear in random locations

kie4

Songster
Jul 21, 2016
516
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176
Malvern, PA
My Coop
My Coop
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Hi,

My New Hampshire Red is a very odd layer. She sits in the nesting box like the other girls, but when I go to check for the egg sometimes it isn't there. I need to scour the coop and run and will find it in a random location. It's not like she has found another favorite place to lay because eggs show up anywhere.

This morning took the biscuit! We found her egg balanced on the entrance to the coop on the gap that the pop door goes into.

What could be causing this style of egg laying?
Is there a way to persuade her to stay in the box longer so that her egg is laid in the box?
 
I have a Black Cochin that happens to have very fine butt feathers. When she lays, her egg seems to emerge very wet and it sticks to her fine butt feathers, causing her to "wear" her egg as she comes off the nest. The egg then falls off willy-nilly any old place. Sometimes she wears the egg on her butt until I happen to notice it dangling from her rear.

What's causing your girl's eggs to migrate is anyone's guess. But I've offered one possible explanation.
 
Thanks for sharing your experience @azygous . It's Saturday this morning and I'm off work. I'm going to fill a thermos and watch her as soon as she enters the nesting box and figure this out. If she is "wearing" the egg that would explain it.
 
I've also had eggs move up a whole nest box level- one hen got good at grabbing the egg under her wing and jumping with it.
Sometimes the girls like to roll the egg around after they've laid it, and they sit back down on it for a while- but that's not the same thing as finding it in such weird places. I like the 'wearing the egg" idea too! Let us know what you find!
 

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