Chickens laying eggs overnight from the roost

2overeasy000

Songster
9 Years
Dec 1, 2010
250
2
111
Has anyone else experienced this? In the morning, I have found broken eggs on the poopboard that must have been layed overnight. It has happened now 3 or 4 times. I have 7 hens that are about 1 1/2 years old and 6 hens that are about 7 months old. I am getting around 3 to 4 eggs a day right now and I'm not sure that any of the 7 month olds have started to lay yet. Thanks for any info or advice.
 
Sometimes, it has occurred to me, that a hen that gets used to laying a 6 am, which is fine in the summer, because it is light out and she can get herself down from the roost and to the nesting box. But what happens to that early layer when the sun doesn't come until 8 am? It's dark and she cannot navigate down from the roost.

One morning, my timer went out. I got out to the barn perhaps 45 minutes after it was set to go on and flipped the lights on manually to do chores. I noticed the unexpected darkness had caused a couple of the hens to lay from the roost in the dark. I replaced the timer, set it go off at the normal 5 am, and ta da. Didn't have the issue again. It was this experience that caused me to say, "hmmmmm..."
 
Thanks Fred. Makes a lot of sense. I actually don't have any lights at all in the coop. No electricity that is. So, as long as it doesn't mean that they are sick or something like that, I'm ok with it. I have just scooped them into the compost bin so far. Just wanted to make sure that it wasn't indicative of an illness. Thanks again and I love the sustainability.
 

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