Chicken laying from perch - how to stop her

[gjb]

Hi,
I have three young Isa Browns that lay an egg each per day. Two lay in the nest box but one seems to lay while sitting on the roosting perch. The egg is on the ground (in the poop and dirt) same place each morning, sometimes cracked. There are two nestboxes in the house but the girls only use one. I have put two plastic eggs back in the second nestbox as I think it is the chook at the bottom of the pecking order laying from the perch and thought there might be a queue for the preferred nestbox. However the egg on the ground is often the coldest so perhaps is laid first. (Is it that she just can't wait to get off the perch to lay!?!) All three were laying in the nest box until about a week ago. How can I break this chook's bad habit?

 

[greensandjeans]

Are they just starting to lay?
I hear its normal for a few to be under the roost at first. Seems that they don't quite know when the egg is coming.

I had a few eggs in under the roost recently with one that was just starting to lay. My light which usually comes on at 5 got switched off by mistake and so I figured she was up, but couldn't see to find the nesting box. She laid it in the nesting box today. Maybe you could add light in the early morning?

My only other advice, is if you see her 'pacing' like she's looking for a place to lay, to pick her up and put her in the nesting box so she gets the idea.

 

[adele]

you have to remind yourself as I do, that chickens brains are very small!

I have a queue for the preferred nest-box in my coop as well, I have 7 chooks, sometimes one RIR and one bantam end up in there together or there is often one or two sitting up on the perch waiting for their turn. I have once or twice seen one of them pacing and put her in the alternate box and she has stayed there and layed, but I have also found eggs under the roost and also up on top of a shelf above the nest boxes. Last week at least one of my Australorps came into lay, (they are identical so not sure if its one or both of them!) I found one egg on the lawn outside the kitchen window, and the next day caught the silly chook trying to find a place to lay inside my house.. and then later out in the laundry. I put her in the coop and shut her in until it was done. They are mental!

I am getting a new coop soon and am hoping to have a more communal nest box that more than one can fit in at a time so hopefully solve this problem.

 

[buckabucka]

I had a leghorn that did this consistently when she first started laying. It still happens occasionally. I think she lays her egg very early in the morning sometimes, and it is too dark to get down and find the nest box. I did not do anything in particular to stop this frustrating behavior, but it did pretty much go away on its own. Good luck!