egg hunt....

metchosinhens

Hatching
7 Years
Dec 5, 2012
8
0
7
My five RIR have started laying last week, i seem to be getting about one a day so i dont think they are all laying yet i seem to catch the same hen in the same box all the time. Today while I was doing yard work I found some random eggs by the side of the house. I have put golf balls in the nests, is there anything i should be doing to encourage them to lay in the boxes and not around the yard
 
Keeping them in the coop and run helps. It limits their choices until they are trained to use the nest boxes.
Yep I second that.

Keep them in the coop until they have laid which at first will be at random times of the day but generally settles into a morning routine. They like to lay in private quiet enclosed spaces. So make your laying box as apealing as possible also helps, as does blocking off other locations they may lay in.

Eventually they should build the habit to only lay in your box.
 
My five RIR have started laying last week, i seem to be getting about one a day so i dont think they are all laying yet i seem to catch the same hen in the same box all the time. Today while I was doing yard work I found some random eggs by the side of the house. I have put golf balls in the nests, is there anything i should be doing to encourage them to lay in the boxes and not around the yard

I am right there with you. I have a Barred Rock hen that I KNOW must be laying somewhere but I can't find her nest and it is making me crazy. I also have two Silkies that are laying under the kid's playhouse. I put their eggs into the nesting box to show them where they should be putting them. Instead of making those two lay in the box, it just made my other Silkie hen (who was laying daily in the box) go broody over the eggs. LOL. The weather is a bit warmer today and I am determined to find where the Barred Rock has been laying...
 
Oh, and I have put golf balls and a rock that looks like an egg in the nesting box. It seems to work for some hens but not others. Next step is keeping them in the coop for several hours like others here have already suggested.
 
If your property is not too big, and you dont have heaps of girls, you might be able to listen out for the barred Rock laying her egg to find the nest. My girls have one particular cluck used only to announce their wonderful achievement for the day-the egg.
 

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