Egg Laying

[pecamp]

I have 10 chickens some were hatched last February. Some of them want to lay their eggs under their roosts instead of in the nest box. I get 6 to 7 eggs a day.

 

[Evelyn Walker]

You could try putting some golf balls/ceramic eggs in the nesting boxes to encourage them to lay there.

 

[aart]

I have 10 chickens some were hatched last February. Some of them want to lay their eggs under their roosts instead of in the nest box. I get 6 to 7 eggs a day.

When were the others hatched?
Are any birds laying in nests?
Pics of your nests may help here.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree, photos of how the roosts and nests are related could help. How long have the ones laying under the roosts been laying in total. How long have they been laying under there? Are these eggs in a "nest", the same spot every day and probably scooped out into a depression, or could they be dropped from the roost at night. Do you have a droppings board between the roots and these "nests". Plus Aart's other questions.

There could be different reasons you are finding eggs under there. I'd like to have an idea of what is going on and what you have to work with before I say too much.

 

[GodofPecking]

Chickens all lay eggs in the same nest as the first chicken did. They see that chicken lay an egg and figure she will raise their screaming kid too and always put it in there. HOWEVER, your layers are bottom of the pecking order cause theyre young and beautiful not like the fat tank broilers who are running the joint, so when they want to lay an egg in THAT nest and there is some high ranking So and So in there they cant hold on anymore and just have to lay the egg as is where is. They'll also stand around yelling"I LAID AN EGG""I LAID AN EGG""I LAID AN EGG""I LAID AN EGG" Before they actually lay the egg if there is someone else on the nest and they need to go.

or it could be something completely different.

or spookily similar.

 

[Brady bunch]

We put rocks in our nest boxes and they work good.

 

[CaseyRee]

You could try putting some golf balls/ceramic eggs in the nesting boxes to encourage them to lay there.

I had this issue with my first couple eggs so I went and got the ceramic eggs. I have 4 boxes but only got 2 eggs. The girls only lay in the boxes with the eggs lol