eggs dropping from roosting pole!

[Sandrachx]

i have been finding broken eggs beneath my roosting pole which i thought were just rolling out of the nesting box. after securing the front edge of the nesting box and putting a poop counter/tray under the roosting poles, i have come to believe that one of my young hens (3) has not been using the nesting box and may be laying an egg while she is roosting at night. sleep laying, is that possible? how can i fix this? how does one reprogram a hen to go to the nesting box and lay an egg? should i put padding (old towels, shoebox with lots of wood shavings, etc.) on the poop counter to catch the egg for the short term? my DH says that a hen will stay in the same spot on the roosting pole so i guess i should do my homework and sneek a peek at them after dark to see who it might be . . .

 

[ruby]

That's a new one on me, yeah I would put something down there to catch 'em!! Good luck!

 

[keljonma]

Your roosts are above your nest boxes? Can you move them?

You can put fake eggs in the nest boxes to encourage the ladies to use the nests.

Birds will move around during the night... so the bird you see sitting at a specific spot may not be the laying an egg from the roost.

Instead of sneaking a peak, I would suggest spending some time with them at night before lock down. Also, get in there REALLY early and spend some time watching. If you watch them getting settled in at night and also starting the day first thing, you may actually be able to move the suspect into a nest box while she's trying to lay the egg on the roost. If you do this a couple days in a row, it will help her get the idea to go to the nest box.

Good luck!

 

[miss_inscan]

Not only is it possible that she's laying from the roost at night, I've caught my Bonny laying from the roost during the day! I was so mad I grabbed her from the roost and put her in the nesting box. While she was throwing a fit the egg popped out.

I have a golf ball in the nest and the other girls took to it, but Bonny hasn't. They've been laying for a year now.

Good luck!

 

[Sandrachx]

all of my hens had been using the nesting boxes up until now. whichever one she is, she is one of the youngsters from last summers hatchings. not sure why she hasn't taken to using the box, but i'll figure out who she is and "help" her.

re: the nesting boxes - we were given some bantam cochins which we thought needed boxes lower to the ground, so we added 4 nesting boxes under the roosting poles at the back of the coop. since we have seen 3 of the 4 use the existing higher boxes, we removed the lower ones and just put one box for the frizzle cochin that has had her flight feathers picked off by other birds (which have recently found a new home with a neighbor).

 

[bills]

I had one hen lay from the roost. Fortunately I have a dropping board covered in pine shavings, so it was a soft landing.

That hen usually lays late in the day, and hadn't at all that day. I think their schedule changes over time.

 

[chickenannie]

If I don't let my chickens out of their coop to free-range until 10 a.m., they lay late in the day. If I let them out at 7 a.m., they lay earlier. Go figure. (this is if I let them out at those hours long-term).

 

[bsb]

I was here searching for this topic because we have at least one hen dropping eggs from the roost.

The culprit is dropping eggs before we get out there, which is right around dawn.

We are in the process of finishing our large scale coop, they are all crammed into a small one I built for brooding and pullets. Maybe they'll all figure things out when the quarters are not so cramped?

I also have a rare gender-bender hen who has completely morphed into a rooster. But that's another topic for another thread.

 

[lisa523]

I noticed a couple of mine doing this. During the week I let them out at 7 am before work and maybe have one broken egg on dropping tray during the week. On the weekend I let them out later like 10 am and I work up to my ee's egg on the dropping tray this morning and a soft shelled one on they board in another coop.