Why is my hen laying her eggs on the roost?

[debid]

I have found a couple eggs under the roost too. My girls were new to laying as well, but it sure is frustrating to find and egg under there with all the poop. I had an older hen start to eat one that must have broken when it fell, I was really nervous that she would start to eat other eggs but never noticed it and now the older hens are gone so I don't have to worry about her teaching it to the others.

They'll eat a broken egg if they find one -- it doesn't mean they will destroy eggs in the nest. When my Maggie was roost-laying, three eggs bounced and two cracked. Then, I also had a hen start laying soft-shells due to stress from worm infestation and a couple of those were dropped from the roost. No egg eating behaviors arose.

 

[GrandmaKatnip]

When this happens, is the egg safe to eat if the shell is intact?

 

[genxjanette]

Your reply was much needed. One of our Barred Rocks (just about 8 mo. old) laid her first egg while up on the roost. It broke. We were just so excited the chickens were reaching the age of laying that a broken one really didn't matter (much) but pray they all find one of the nesting boxes to be more suitable.

My chickens have just started laying too. They are 6 months old now. The first layers are the ISA Browns, and one of them dropped her first egg on the poop deck, but then figured out where to lay for the next couple of weeks. Now, this week she is back to laying on the poop deck again. Sunday and Monday morning we had poop deck eggs, yesterday morning she laid it in the nest box, then this morning her egg was back on the poop deck. I'm not sure what's going on in her little brain. We have 3 elevated nest boxes and two nest boxes on the ground to chose from. I guess she still needs to sort it out,