I have a VERY small flock of 1 bantam cochin rooster, "Jay-Zee", 1 rescue New Hampshire red hen, "Pink", 1 bantam cochin frizzle, "Lady Gaga" (rooster's sister), and a mutt hen, "Cher". About a two months ago I introduced the very friendly New Hampshire Red to the flock. For the first five weeks or so everything was fine after they figured out the pecking order, but for the last two weeks they suddenly stopped laying. Or so I thought. This morning I found a giant pile of eggs in my big patch of yellow flag irises (perfect hiding spot). Lady Gaga hasn't laid an egg that I can find in quite a few months, but I can tell by the size that have of these are Cher's and half Pink's. Between the three hens they pretty much lay small, medium and large eggs. Convenient for me to tell them apart. The chickens usually go over to my neighbors field for a few hours every morning, but I have noticed that "Pink" hangs out closer to home (and apparently closer to the irises). No one is sitting on them that I know of. The coop and main chicken area is right outside my kitchen and living room window so I can keep an eye on them and I hang out and watch them all the time. So, what the heck is going on, and what should I do?
All it will take is one hen to lay there. All the others will think "Hey, someone laid an egg here, this must be a safe spot to lay" and before you know it, you'll have a pile of eggs from the sneaky girls. Take all the eggs out of the nest, and mess the nest up. Put fake eggs in the nest boxes to encourage them to go back to those.