Egg in bedding

[sagicraw]

My NH reds are laying eggs in my Pete moss bedding instead of the wood chip nesting boxes. Any ideas?? They layed for weeks in NB's but now in a single corner in the bedding.

 

[Janet Pesaturo]

You mean on the floor, right? Try collecting eggs more often. Chickens like to lay where someone else has already laid eggs. In my flock of 15, I have 1 who always, always, always lays on the floor in a particular corner. Others will lay there if I don't pick up her egg, but use the nestboxes if I collect her egg before they find it.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Can you make the corner where they are laying less attractive? Put something over there like a couple of bricks to make it less comfotable. Can you make your nesting boxes more inviting to a chicken?, darker, easier to get into, better nesting material or something?

 

[sagicraw]

Will it help if i put golfballs back in theMB's?

 

[Kelsie2290]

Ya, I always have fake eggs/golf balls in the nest boxes. X2 chickens like to lay where there are already eggs.

 

[pamsmithtulsa]

Will putting golf balls in their nesting boxes also stimulate them lay eggs?

 

[Kelsie2290]

It does not make them lay more or sooner in my experience, don't remember ever reading read anything that indicates it will either. It pretty much is just the chicken see chicken do effect with regards to where they will lay eggs.

 

[pamsmithtulsa]

Okay thanks! I wil add some to their nests and see if they are maybe laying somewhere that I can't find.