Abnormal egg laying behaviors

[Laurda1842]

Good afternoon! I am a new backyard chicken owner, and my hens have had some abnormal laying behavior this past week. I have two polish bantams (7 months) who have been laying 5 eggs a week consistently since June. They have almost always used their nesting boxes with one or two exceptions. We had a really bad heat wave in Maryland last week for about 4 days (over 100), and they stopped laying. It has been about a week, and I found two eggs cracked in the coop, but they have not gotten back to their regular laying schedule yet. The temperature is unseasonably cool here now. Is this normal? They are eating drinking, and active. We also have another pullet who just started laying, and she has laid once her nesting box, but I found two eggs cracked under the perch where she sleeps. I keep my eye on the chickens throughout the day, so I think she must have just popped them out really early in the AM while she was still on her perch. I read that this can happen with newly laying pullets, but is there anything I can do? Thank you!!

 

[Kearaaaa23]

It's normal unfortunately. Most chickens take time to get used to weather changes or egg production can even stop for a while. Do you think the nesting boxes or coops have mites etc..? If not then there isn't much you can do. I'd also suggest putting fake dummy eggs in the nesting boxes to encourage them to lay in the boxes. Make sure they have plenty of access to grit etc.. hope this helps

 

[Laurda1842]

It's normal unfortunately. Most chickens take time to get used to weather changes or egg production can even stop for a while. Do you think the nesting boxes or coops have mites etc..? If not then there isn't much you can do. I'd also suggest putting fake dummy eggs in the nesting boxes to encourage them to lay in the boxes. Make sure they have plenty of access to grit etc.. hope this helps

Thank you! We did have lice, but we did 3 coop treatments and 3 chicken treatments and added diatamaceous earth. We don't see the lice anymore, but even when we had the issue, they were laying in the box. I am thinking it has to be connected to the heat. Thank you though! I just hate worrying that something is wrong, but if this is normal, I am happy to wait it out!