dropping eggs from the roost!

[TheOldHen]

I am sure this has been answered before, but being a newbi i am looking for answers now please. I have 4 hens starting on their 21 st week, none have layed an egg yet. Yesterday afternoon i notice one acting strange. Tail down, not running for a treat, things like that. At night i put her in the hen house. It took her 3 trys to get up to roost. Well this morning when i went out to open their house up---there was a yellow wet mess on the floor of the house. Then i found what looks like a heavy brown plastic egg shape broken . I think she had her first egg while on the roost and it just dropped. I read on this forum, to put a golf ball in the nesting box so i did this morning. Why aren't they using the nesting box? Seeing it is the first egg---is it something they learn as they have more eggs?? I was so waiting for the first egg, and now this. Good news is the hen isn't sick, bad is I still don't have a egg. Any ideas?

 

[Fred's Hens]

The first eggs they pass can often be shell-less and the pullet doesn't even know what she has done. Give them time.

 

[Patches The Hen]

When I my chickens started laying a few weeks ago, my hens laid them on the roost. The shells were soft, so I think the hens can't tell the difference between a new egg and you know what.

The first hard shelled egg I got was in the nest box.

My chickens I had a couple of years before these brand new ones came, started, and continued to lay their eggs off the roost. So I put chicken wire just below the roost(but above the ground) The wire was just big enough that their droppings fell through, and just small enough that the eggs couldn't fall through. At least I was able to collect their eggs that way. But eventually they started laying in the nest boxes. This isn't a solution to your problem though, I don't know if there is a way to make them lay in the nest box

I hope someone answers who has the perfect solution!

Yay! I noticed that I've "Just Hatched"!!!!!!

 

[bambi]

I wouldn't worry for right now. When hen's first start laying, it is a new experience to them you will at times find soft eggs,rubber eggs but they will get the hang of it. Keep a golf ball in the nest.

 

[maclady]

These are my first chickens but even though they lay in the nest boxes sometimes I get the oops egg under the roost. It is always a small egg and it seems like the poor girl didn't even realize what she had done. I am sure that your ladies will figure out the nest boxes. I used wooden eggs in mine until they figured out what they boxes were for.

 

[Marcymom3]

Wow. I had one of those rubber eggs yesterday too. We have eight chickens and I think only six are laying regularly. We got five eggs the day before plus that one that was under the roost. It was empty though, so I think someone must have pecked at it. Maybe one of the other two did it by accident. Today I got a very small egg from the nest box.

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

I think it's common for new layers to lay their first egg in a strange spot. I've found eggs under the roost (in the shavings) and right in the middle of the run. Typically, my hens figure out the correct place to lay by the time they lay their 2nd or 3rd egg. I keep a fake egg in each nestbox, to encourage them to lay in the nestboxes.

 

[TheOldHen]

thanks for the words of wisdom. This is all new to me and getting me nervous instead of being fun. I went out to the hen house this afternoon to check on water and food so when they come back in for the night i would have to do it than. Well i found another rubber type egg smashed again. This time i am sure it didn't come from the roost--to far away. Now wondering if they just stepped on it or is one of the hens eating it? OH some times i wonder if i should have started this---to late now! I have grown close to them and they are "part" of the family. I don't know what to do,can't watch them 24-7 to see who is doing what. I know the one that layed the first and i think the second. But what is happening after laying is a mystery to me. Again if anyone has had this problem i would love to hear what you did. Thanks everyone