Broken eggs - laid from the perch!

[DayKay]

Howdy! I'm still new to this whole chicken thing, and LOVING it!

We had a 10 x 10 section of our barn built for puppies when our Lab was breeding, and have put chickens in it now that the Lab is spayed. There is a door connecting to a chain-link fenced section of yard. We built a box for nesting and put it in the "puppy area" inside the barn. We put an old shovel handle across the rebar to the kennel fencing for a roost.

The problem is - periodically one of the hens drops her egg from the roost in the morning, and since it drops 3 feet to concrete, it breaks. If I take the roost down, they perch on the top edge of the nesting box, the next highest location in their area, and that quickly becomes filthy!

My specific question is - has anyone tried putting a "safety net" underneath the perch, made of mesh, or chicken wire, or something? What would be the pros and cons of doing that?

Thanks!

Dalene

 

[chookchick]

I don't know about a "safety net", that sounds odd, but have you though about a poop board? A lot of BYCers have them, and are very happy with them. It is mainly used to catch the poo, so you can clean it out every day or so and keeps the coop a heck of a lot cleaner. Most are about 2' wide, and covered with linoleum and a thin layer of shavings--so this might catch any eggs that fall. Mine is a bit different--it is a tray filled with Stall Dry (like a big litter box), never had an egg laid there, but I think it wouldn't crack...I'll get a pic of it.


and

 

[arherp]

Have you actually watched them lay? Maybe they are laying them on the floor, and flying down on them? Or you might have an egg eater...

 

[DarkWolf]

Some of my young hens did that for a while.. They grow out of it.

 

[Preservation Acres]

Yep. I had a Delaware hen that did that, but she figured it out. Has she seen eggs in the nesting boxes? Sometimes they need a hint.

 

[DarkWolf]

I figure it's like my 4 yo used to do... He knew where the potty was, could more often than not go potty without issue, but darnit if from time to time he wouldn't be preoccupied with something else and end up piddling down his leg.

So I figure it's a chickens "Huh? Wha's that? Uh Oh!"..

 

[SC_Hugh]

Quote:
I had a couple of dropped eggs in the beginning too

seriously wanted to cry when you loose a precious egg from the roost bars.

Not to worry, they will learn to lay in the nest boxes very soon,

Hugh

 

[Mac in Wisco]

There isn't any bedding material to catch them? I used to use pine shavings in our small coop and they'd fall into that without breaking. In our big hen house, they roost on slats at night and any eggs laid on the slats will roll several feet down the slats and then drop 2 feet into the litter without breaking.

Sometimes it takes new layers a while to get synchronized.

 

[Birdcrazy]

Sometimes my chooks do all sorts things with their eggs (laying wise) and the perch and nesting boxes are quite high up. I have a rubber floor and hay bedding, so any eggs that fall, no matter the distance, havent broken yet. Sometimes my chooks lay randomly if the others are hogging the nest boxes too

 

[geebs]

That cracks me up... Wish my children would have just "fallen" out