chickens laying eggs everywhere

[mtpeke]

I have 10 chickens (1 polish, 3 leghorns, 2 sexlink, 4 barred rock). All are about 6 months old except for the sexlink which are a year old. The barred rock started laying eggs like they should in the hen house, but now they are laying them also on the porch of my home and on our outdoor cat bet. Same for the newly aquired sexlink. The leghorns just walked through our front lawn and laid an egg. No telling how long they have been laying and no telling where they laid them.

I let them free range on our 6 acres and they do fine during the day and are fairly easy to put up at night. I have 2 golf balls in each of the laying boxes.

Help!! How do I get them to lay in their boxes?

 

[Choco Maran]

Keep them in the coop untill the lay their eggs in the morning. If you let them free range thay will lay anywhere they feel comfortable. This is the only thing I can think of right now

 

[steelchair]

I keep my hens locked up until the afternoon. This way they lay where they are supposed to.

 

[PoultryGirly]

You can put a fake egg (like an Easter egg) in their nesting boxes and that will teach them. They'll think " Hey, that looks like a safe, cozy spot to lay because there's already an egg in there!"


I have a ceramic egg.... Here's the link:
http://shop.crackerbarrel.com/Brown...archPage=1&searchRank=salesrank&searchSize=12

 

[mtpeke]

Will the golf balls.not work? I can grab some plastic Easter eggs and.put in there. For those that keep them locked.up do they stay in your hen house or do you also have a run for them? Do you keep food and water with them while they are in the house? I have been but it takes up a lot of room and they make such a mess.

 

[7 Biddies]

Quote:
Lots of people use them instead of fake eggs. The chickens don't seem to notice the difference.

 

[donrae]

They don't know they're "supposed" to lay in a nest box. They're creatures of habit, so you have to get them in the habit of laying in the nest boxes. Many folks who free range find they need to keep the birds confined to the coop for a few days. Once they start laying where you want, they'll usually continue once you open them back up. And yes, this means having enough space for them to live in the coop or run, with feed and water.

 

[mtpeke]

I am keeping them up until the afternoon. I just want to make sure that they will be "OK" in their hen house. 10 hens in a 4x5 foot hen house so basicly 2 sq ft per hen (which I read is the minimum).

What do you do about water. They end up mucking it up by knocking pine shavings into both the water and food dispensers that I bought at TSC.

 

[steelchair]

Put your water and feeders up on blocks. I use cinder blocks and they work for me.

 

[ronott1]

I have 10 chickens (1 polish, 3 leghorns, 2 sexlink, 4 barred rock). All are about 6 months old except for the sexlink which are a year old. The barred rock started laying eggs like they should in the hen house, but now they are laying them also on the porch of my home and on our outdoor cat bet. Same for the newly aquired sexlink. The leghorns just walked through our front lawn and laid an egg. No telling how long they have been laying and no telling where they laid them.

I let them free range on our 6 acres and they do fine during the day and are fairly easy to put up at night. I have 2 golf balls in each of the laying boxes.

Help!! How do I get them to lay in their boxes?

Your have gotten a lot of great pointers. For the young ones, it sometimes takes them a while to figure out that the next box is where they should lay the egg.

My Silver Gray Dorking has been laying for a couple of weeks, and laid her first egg in the nest box yesterday.

Ron