25 chickens and NO EGGS??

[WaldensRidge]

X2 confine them to the coop for a few days.

 

[wolftracks]

I don't think its a feed issue, you are giving them ample to eat, especially with the free-ranging!

I am still going with concealed nest (maybe on your neighbor's property). They may not know where their nest box is if you have never gotten an egg from them so they are going to the safest place they know. Points to ponder: Have you ever seen them go to the nest box and seen them sit there? Have you ever heard the egg-song coming from your property or the free-range area? If you don't know what it sounds like then you can porobably pull up one off the web and give a listen. Another point to consider is they may be laying but a predator ( this includes, wild, domestic, guineas, chickens and humans) is finding the eggs and eating the eggs overnight so you don't see them when you look. Look for a nest-like place with no eggs.

So here is what I would do:
-Place dummy eggs in the next box/es that you want them to use
-Keep them confined for several days with access to those boxes. They will be grumpy and a noisy rabble waiting to get out because thats what they are used to. You really need to determine if any eggs are being laid and to also get them retrained. Its only temporary.
-If the above two do not yield eggs, replace the dummy eggs in the nest with store-bought eggs. After 24 hours are they still there? If not you have an egg eater/eaters that are eating the eggs as they are laid. You will need to identify the culprit and remove them from the flock.
-Do several very, very careful search for the nest/nests. There was one person I remember reading about that had a bunch of free-range hens and their eggs dried up over time. They had done searches and found nothing. The last search revealed hundreds of eggs on a derelict truck's cab floorboards. They had gotten in through a cracked window and that became their repository. I had walked by the red-wagon nest many times and did not see it--I only found it because a hen went missing for two days and I needed to try to find her body so my daughter could have closure and after all that grief she had gone broody and was sitting on the clutch of 16 eggs. Under the wagon. So not only had I missed the nest but I had missed the broody on the nest for two day and countless passes.

Good Luck!

All good advice and more than my brain could put out at once in this heat. Man it's hot here. Oh and I have an egg eater. golfballs for the girl for a while. She's one of my best FBCM hens and i need her eggs.

 

[CindyJeann]

Last summer I had the same problem then one day while sitting on my back porch I saw a hen hop out some tall grass and begin to sing. We found 26 eggs in that nest... silly hens.

 

[dretd]

All good advice and more than my brain could put out at once in this heat. Man it's hot here. Oh and I have an egg eater. golfballs for the girl for a while. She's one of my best FBCM hens and i need her eggs.

Why, thanks! We just got a reprieve with some rain from our string of 100+ degree days and I understand its supposed to go back to broiler days this week. Turns me in to a slug.

Sorry to hear about your egg eater. last week I set down on the ground eggs I was collecting so I could use both hands to adjust the bedding and the roo came over to them and pecked and made his pip-pip-pip 'I found something tasty' call to the girls

stupid roo. I got them up right away but was not happy about the situation. Note to Butters (the roo): that's #2...

 

[wolftracks]

Bad rooster!

 

[En Plein Air Farms]

No, I don't think they have a nest hidden anywhere but I sure can look again. I also have guineas in there. They all grew up together. I wonder if the guineas have anything to do with it?

. Another point to consider is they may be laying but a predator ( this includes, wild, domestic, guineas, chickens and humans) is finding the eggs and eating the eggs overnight so you don't see them when you look. Look for a nest-like place with no eggs.

Jeby, how many guineas do you have? As dretd pointed out they could be the egg preadators?
Looking forward to hearing how this works out for you.

 

[dretd]

Jebyballard, Did you get out yesterday to check for a concealed nest? What have you decided to do?

 

[Jebyballard]

I've looked everywhere. Do you think they would lay eggs off the path in a forested area? Does that sound like chicken laying behavior? Is there an excellent book or web site that deals exclusively with chicken behavior?

 

[dretd]

I've looked everywhere. Do you think they would lay eggs off the path in a forested area? Does that sound like chicken laying behavior? Is there an excellent book or web site that deals exclusively with chicken behavior?

Hi Jebyballard. If the chickens go in the forest, they may lay eggs there, in fact I would suspect it. I would search there under bushes, in tall grass and under trees.

From time to time mine lay outside of the nest. The most popular spots have all been highly protected and secret. Number one is in the Raspberry patch. Very hard for humans to access. Except for the nest under the wagon, all of the others have been in tall grass near the base of trees or bushes.

I don't know of chicken-specific behavior books, sorry.

I still go back to my advice of confining them for several days to get them trained to the nest boxes and to place dummy eggs therein. I have had to do it with my girls and it can be very helpful.

 

[CindyJeann]

...I still go back to my advice of confining them for several days to get them trained to the nest boxes and to place dummy eggs therein. I have had to do it with my girls and it can be very helpful.

I agree