Chickens started laying eggs in odd spots

[Doylehomestead]

I have 9 free ranged Golden Laced Wyandottes that have started laying their eggs in random bushes. I have a couple of questions about this.

How do I retrain them to lay in their boxes? And I have found about 15 under one bush today that might have been there for about a week. Are they still good to eat or should I just get rid of them? The weather has been no higher then 80 in the last week/week and a half.

Help please!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

This happens from time to time. Regarding the eggs you found - *I* would dispose of them. Yes, you could try float testing, etc and/or you could crack them into a bowl and sniff for/look for signs of being unsafe, but I'd rather just toss them out and be done with it and move forward.
Now, to the rogue laying issue - time to retrain the girls. Do you have a run in which they can be enclosed? If so, you need to pen them up and keep them in the run so that when they want to lay their best option is to go into the coop and lay in a nest box. Keep them penned up for a couple of weeks and let them back out. If/when you see a drop in the number of eggs in the nest boxes, start your egg hunt and retrain as needed.

 

[Pip4Chirp]

I have 3 hens and they normally all use the nesting boxes in their coop. They also have an enclosed run and then I let them run around the yard for an hour or two every day. All of a sudden, one hen is laying her egg in the run or the coop - just anywhere. One morning last week she just squatted right in front of me when I was feeding them and dropped her egg. Any ideas as to what is going on with her? She is by far the fattest of the hens. Other than that, she is very healthy and happy.

 

[Doylehomestead]

They actually slowly just started laying in their coop again with out even having to retrain them. And as for the eggs I found I just opened them in a separate bowl before using them and they all smelt and looked fine. No one got sick from them!