adjust timing

[abpatchy]

Hi guys,
I am a new chicken owner. The girls have been with me for almost a month. I am planing on breeding for show ( I got them from a breeder) They are from last year.
So, now after the moving adjustment and molting, one has finally decited, she is laying eggs. A second one had layed one but not since.
My problem is the one laying regularly is doing it in the middle of the night while she is on the perch. I do have a nest and a wooden egg to attract them to it. I think maybe she would use the nest if she'd be laying during day time. Is she herself eventually adjusting the timing? Or can I do something to encourage daytime laying?
Thanks!!

 

[Shadrach]

Hi guys,
I am a new chicken owner. The girls have been with me for almost a month. I am planing on breeding for show ( I got them from a breeder) They are from last year.
So, now after the moving adjustment and molting, one has finally decited, she is laying eggs. A second one had layed one but not since.
My problem is the one laying regularly is doing it in the middle of the night while she is on the perch. I do have a nest and a wooden egg to attract them to it. I think maybe she would use the nest if she'd be laying during day time. Is she herself eventually adjusting the timing? Or can I do something to encourage daytime laying?
Thanks!!

You could try saving a couple of her eggs and placing them in a nest box.
Sometimes it takes a while for new lay pullets to get the hang of egg laying. I've had them trotting down a path here and casually dropping an egg while they're walking.
It seems they know they are going to lay an egg and often sit but don't realise when the egg is, or isn't out. I think, given the physiology of a hen, when the egg has moved to where it shuts off the intestine anything creating pressure at that point is assumed to be poop by the hen until she learns differently.
Here, once they do actually lay an egg in a nest, they tend to check the egg out. Then they know.

 

[abpatchy]

Well I do have fake eggs laying in the nests. The hens are one year old... so they should know what they are doing. The problem is the timing. We had a camera set up and she layed her egg between 10 p.m. and 11p.m. while sitting on the perch. I need to switch her to daytime laying.
The egg I picked up today was partially broken due to the drop. It landed soft but still broke. I cannot hatch chicks come spring from those eggs if she keeps it up. That's why I'm asking.

 

[Shadrach]

Well I do have fake eggs laying in the nests. The hens are one year old... so they should know what they are doing. The problem is the timing. We had a camera set up and she layed her egg between 10 p.m. and 11p.m. while sitting on the perch. I need to switch her to daytime laying.
The egg I picked up today was partially broken due to the drop. It landed soft but still broke. I cannot hatch chicks come spring from those eggs if she keeps it up. That's why I'm asking.

You could for the short term, if getting undamaged eggs is important, shut her in the nest box overnight.