Eggs everywhere but the nesting box!

[cluckintexan]

My hens started laying a couple weeks ago. Yay! I've been getting at least one egg a day... or so I thought. Annoyingly they lay in the "poop chute" in their coop and not the nesting boxes... I've put shavings and a plastic egg in there and they just scattered the shavings. I'm going to try hay next and see if that helps. This morning, I thought I was missing a chicken, and she's my favorite. (But don't tell the other chickens) So I'm freaking out running around looking for her and I find her. Sitting on a nest of 12 eggs behind my ac unit, working on number 13.

I have two questions: are those eggs safe to eat?
How can I make the nesting boxes more desirable?

They all go to the coop to sleep at night, but I don't shut them in because nothing is willing to come in my back yard with my giant dog standing guard. He's never hurt a chicken, he just wants to smell them or play with them but... they aren't fond of him. I don't want to shut them up because it's so warm at night and even with the ventilation in there it gets hot. I don't want hard boiled eggs lol. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I'm struggling to get this moving in a better direction.

 

[barred2rock]

You can check egg freshness with a float test. If the egg sits flat at the bottom it's fresh. If it starts to stand on end it's a little less fresh. If it floats it's bad.

 

[lazy gardener]

try giving them a nice deep bedding of hay in the nest boxes.

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

You could try and put a few of their eggs they laid in a nest box. Sometimes it takes a little while for them to get the idea. I know my girls prefer to lay in a nest that already has an egg in it. So I don't collect them early. If I find one I'll leave it for a little while longer and usually I'll find another egg when I check again.

 

[lazy gardener]

You can check egg freshness with a float test. If the egg sits flat at the bottom it's fresh. If it starts to stand on end it's a little less fresh. If it floats it's bad.

All the float test does is give an indication of air cell size.

 

[cluckintexan]

I will definitely try the hay. And I'll use some of the mystery eggs I found for in the nest. If I mark the egg in some way so we know it's an older one will it put them off?

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

I will definitely try the hay. And I'll use some of the mystery eggs I found for in the nest. If I mark the egg in some way so we know it's an older one will it put them off?

I highly doubt they will notice.

 

[Chichi_08]

I use golf balls in my nesting boxes, similar size and weight as an egg. Recently we had some of our ladies start laying elsewhere in the coop. I added more shavings and the next day they were using the boxes again. Good luck!