Stopped laying in nesting boxes...

[RRLaney]

So the past couple weeks we have only been getting about 1 egg/day from our 7 laying hens. I thought maybe it was the heat...plus I just treated 2 for bumblefoot. But yesterday I found a my puppy snacking on a raw egg in the backyard. After some investigating, I found a stash of eggs underneath our back porch deck!

I can't get to the eggs, I've tried fishing them out with no luck. I don't want to block off their access to underneath the deck because we do not have a lot of shade in the yard, and its perfect cover from hawks! Plus they keep the grass and weeds low under the deck so we don't have to worry about it. They love it down there. They've always had access to it, not sure why they started laying under there all of a sudden. The coop isn't that far from the deck. And I have a fan on in there when it's hot.

Without blocking off their access...anybody have any ideas on how to convince them to lay in the coop again?

I don't want to have to start buying eggs from the store...and I don't want old eggs rotting under the deck. Annddd...the puppy is starting to get bad gas

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You need to block it. There's no other answer unfortunately. You should also have fake eggs in your nestboxes to show your hens a safe place to lay. You may also have to confine them to retrain them to use the boxes.

Eating raw eggs can cause biotin deficiencies in dogs, so I definitely would put a stop to it all.

 

[Kiki]

X2 Block it asap.

 

[Birdsong 82]

If you have a run and they lay in the morning you could try keeping them in run until about noon. That’s what I do to avoid the hunt

 

[RRLaney]

You need to block it. There's no other answer unfortunately. You should also have fake eggs in your nestboxes to show your hens a safe place to lay. You may also have to confine them to retrain them to use the boxes.

Eating raw eggs can cause biotin deficiencies in dogs, so I definitely would put a stop to it all.

Yeah, that might be my only option. I could easily keep the puppy from going under there now that I know they're down there. I've read that dogs have to eat a ton of raw eggs to get a biotin deficiency though. I know a lot of people feed their dogs raw eggs with every meal.

That being said, I don't want her to keep eating them. And I want to be able to eat them. So if I have to block it off I will.

If you have a run and they lay in the morning you could try keeping them in run until about noon. That’s what I do to avoid the hunt

Don't have a run unfortunately. We are in the process of building a bigger coop with one, but they free range and we have an automatic door that lets them out at sunlight since we work early and are gone before the sun rises so we wouldn't be able to let them out all day if not. Good idea though

 

[Birdsong 82]

I would like one of those automatic doors too. It becomes a bit of a struggle to let them out when I want to when my daughter goes back to school. She usually lets them out at 12. But I do like having a run for several reasons. And as far as the raw egg for dogs thing I think maybe the problems come when it’s not just one raw egg a day but lots. But I’m not a vet so I don’t know that for sure.But I can understand not wanting your dog to eat them. I don’t know that I would want her eating an unknown amount of eggs either It wouldn’t be in the nesting box I can’t leave the door open to my run because my goats will get in and destroy everything I actually bought a medium size dog house at a yard sale cleaned and sanitized it and stuck it in their coop (or near if it doesn’t fit inside) for a little while so they were used to it and then stuck it outside. They will lay in that You can give it a shot. At least you would know where they are. But even with that idea I would still leave the other spot blocked