Always lays off roost in middle of night, help!

[superchemicalgirl]

The bird in question is a red sex link who was born in mid-April. She's been laying for a few months now. The only problem is each and every time she lays (which is quite often) she lays in the middle of the night off her roost into her poo pile (which does cushion the landing of the egg I guess since they don't break).

I read on here that that's sometimes normal for newly laying girls and that she'll straighten herself out in a bit.

She hasn't. Almost every day there's an egg in the poo pile off the roost by the time I get out there to let them out.

The eggs aren't even warm when I go out in the morning (and I let them out now at 6 am - it's still dark but I have to because of my work schedule) so it's not like she's waiting for me to wake her to lay. It happened in Summer when I was letting her out when it was starting to get light at 4:30 AM (she had already laid) and it's happening now that the days are much shorter.

I have 13 nest boxes of all different types for 32 girls. Everyone else uses a nest box chronically.

Any ideas?
I don't have power out there.

 

[Stevo]

Try putting her in a nestbox and cover it with wire so she cant get out for a few nights. Maybe she will get the idea.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I'm afraid that would encourage her to sleep and poo in the nest box... has anyone used this method?

I think I'd rather her lay off the roost than poo in the nestbox.

 

[7L Farm]

Did you have fake eggs in the box's prior ti her laying?

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Absolutely!
I had a sneak egg attack by a 16.5 week old leghorn... after that I fashioned nesting boxes with fake eggs.

 

[cottage19]

I hope someone has a solution for you because we have the same problem IN TRIPLICATE. 3 of our 7 hens lay while on the roost. These girls were purchased as 17 wk. pullets in mid-July and began laying right on schedule but where they lay is a whole other story. They have a spacious coop with an equally spacious and secure run. The coop is equipped with 4 roomy nest boxes. During the day they free range. We have 10 acres but they stay within a reasonable distance from their coop. All the hens lay in the coop but only a few of them use the nest boxes. For a while we had eggs UNDER the nest boxes so we put two old wooden crates on the floor and I often find an egg in the crates. The 3 roost layers consistently drop their eggs while on the roost. We had a lot of broken eggs so I finally strung netting under the roost to catch the egg bombs. The poop goes through the netting and onto the poop boards and I do get some dirty eggs but at least they aren't getting broken anymore. I have golf balls in the nests but that hasn't made a difference so until someone come up with a real solution I'm keeping the net up.