Egg laying location

[bcarthen]

In my flock most of my ladies do pretty good about laying in the nesting boxes. With that being said i have 4 hens not laying in the boxes. I have a golden comet laying on top of a goat treat bag that sits on a shelf. I have three others(not sure which ones yet) laying on the hay in my goats pen. I have fake eggs in each nest box and 20 other hens laying in said boxes. What can i do to help them lay in the boxes?

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Do you have a run attached to your coop that can be used to keep them all close to the coop and away from the other sitees for a week or so?

 

[bcarthen]

All of my animals are in the same fence. Where the other 2 laying site are are less than 10 feet from my nesting boxes.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

All of my animals are in the same fence. Where the other 2 laying site are are less than 10 feet from my nesting boxes.

The distance is not the issue, the confinement works to make the right thing easy(laying in the nest) and the wrong thing hard (laying elsewhere). Essentially you form a new habitt to replace the existing habit. Short of that youll have to decide if you are ok with the daily egg hunt. Do know more flock members will likely follow the lead of your rogue layers as thine passes

 

[bcarthen]

luckily they are all laid reletively close to the coop but it does get annoying. I just dont want to lock all my chickens up to fix 4 chickens. But it looks like that is what im going to have to do.