Chickens not laying eggs in nesting boxes :-(

[WhenInRhome]

Mine will randomly start laying in different spots. When they do I place a piece of firewood in that spot. Next day they lay back in the box and I remove the wood. Then a few months later they will start laying in a different spot and I repeat the process. I think one will get lazy and lay somewhere and the rest just follow along. Blocking the space they have picked seems to have worked for me.

 

[lesat409]

I thought my chickens had stopped laying eggs, only to find out now, a week later, that they have created a new laying nest under a bush. It is full of a week's worth of eggs! How do I tell if they are good or not? I think I will remove the nest and place some of the eggs back in the nesting box along with the fake egg, and perhaps confine them to the coop for a few days.

 

[copper2]

Maybe you should try candling them

 

[3chickenheads]

A few days ago one of our girls started laying her eggs in the corner of the coop. And when I get out there..always too late of course...the egg is broken! I'm not sure if it's the same chicken that was laying the very soft eggs (in the bin) last week. Also, there is a new resident with them...a chipmunk! Could it be the chipmunk causing the damage and stress?

 

[FloridaGal]

I have a similar problem with my black australorp. She seems to want to lay near our house, instead of in her nest box in the coop. Golf balls haven't helped with her. They free range in the yard, so when I lock her in her coop to lay, the other three hens can't get in to the nest boxes. Any ideas?

 

[med1pilot]

Your post gives us a semblance of hope. Our chicks just turned 23 weeks old today and one of them (we think one of the Barred Rocks) laid her first egg. It was on the floor of the coop directly in front of their pop door. I suspect she dropped while waiting for the automatic door to open this morning. Our nest boxes are 12 inches off the floor with a small staging roost in front of them. We have ceramic eggs in two of the three nests (large white dish pans 1/2 filled with straw and aforementioned fake eggs). We really hope they take control and get the idea, like you mention in your post. Going on a treasure hunt for new eggs every morning is not my favorite thought.

 

[annie511]

I've just started finding eggs today. My 2RIRs are most likely the ones laying. They are dropping randomly on coop floor. I'm wondering if I can boil a couple to use as fake eggs. Can't seem to get my hands on anything. I have 5 girls I sure would like to get them using the nests right away. Any opinions?

I found white wooden fake eggs at the local craft store. Ac moore, hobby lobby, or jo Ann's. Should be back in the section where they keep the paint your own plain bird boxes or wood letters

 

[med1pilot]

Just fill a bowl with cold water and place your eggs in the bowl. If they sink to the bottom and lay flat on their sides, they're very fresh. If they're a few weeks old but still good to eat, they'll stand on one end at the bottom of the bowl. If they float to the surface, they're no longer fresh enough to eat.

 

[aart]

Just fill a bowl with cold water and place your eggs in the bowl. If they sink to the bottom and lay flat on their sides, they're very fresh. If they're a few weeks old but still good to eat, they'll stand on one end at the bottom of the bowl. If they float to the surface, they're no longer fresh enough to eat.

Not true.....only way to tell if they are truly inedible is to break them open in a dish and look and smell them.

 

[med1pilot]

I Googled this question, and every single site, including Fresh Eggs Daily, Our Pet Chicken, and numerous food sites all say the same thing. Some with more detail than others like this one. I'll trust this method until something happens to change my mind.

https://whatscookingamerica.net/Eggs/EggsFloat.htm