For those not familiar with my other thread on this hen Marti - I was pretty confident she had been laying but then she apparently stopped about the time I had to close off the nest she’d been using. Due to sick hens and vacation and stuff, she fell off my radar as she always acted 100% fine. When things settled down I recently focused back on Marti. Her vent seemed small and on the dry side. Maybe I was wrong and she never started laying. Except review of my egg tracker shows she had to have laid on July 10. Had to or the total egg count couldn’t have been what it was. Every hen laid that day except for 2 white egg layers and Marti is a brown egg layer. A small darker brown speckled egg.
Anyway, I was unable to verify Marti continued to lay after I closed off the only nest box she ever used (had put sick hen in there).
Then a few weeks ago a small light brown egg started showing up in weird places around the coop and run. Sometimes under the roost boards, once broken there too, by the outside water pan, on the pavers outside a main door, etc. Egg usually looked like it had been rolled quite a bit as the brown color was faded, rubbed off or uneven.
I thought these eggs were maybe from a different new layer as I did have a video of Ginger popping out an egg during a jump down from the nest box. But I also know for a fact that Ginger does usually lay in the nest boxes.
So..... Marti. I just basically decided to not worry about her as long as she was doing fine otherwise. Her health checks were great although her vent did seem small and rather dry as noted. Except this last check a few days ago - her vent definitely was moister. But I still
Never ever caught her in the regular nest boxes. I have cameras. I’ve only seen her once eying up the nest box she used to use (still closed off even though the sick hen was culled on 7/27). And yesterday I did see her eye up the main nest boxes - first time ever for that.
Then this happened this morning:
Ok! She’s laying! Not small dark brown speckled newbie eggs like before. Excellent!
While I can trim her butt feathers so the egg doesn’t stick on the way out, more importantly she doesn’t seem to know that she’s laying!
How can I get her to understand she’s laying and to go into the nest boxes? I could open up her preferred nest box - although I really don’t want to do that as the next time I need that area for a hospital or jail it’ll just get closed off again.
I could make a nest box that is the same as the main nest boxes and lock her in the coop with that and see if she’ll start laying in the box and then move the box slowly toward the other boxes...? Except I leave in less 2 weeks for a 3 week vacation. Do you think she’ll transition in that time frame? Or is there some other way to get her to realize she’s laying and use a nest box?
Sorry for the super long post but thought having the full story would better spark ideas to address this issue. Has anyone else had this happen??
Anyway, I was unable to verify Marti continued to lay after I closed off the only nest box she ever used (had put sick hen in there).
Then a few weeks ago a small light brown egg started showing up in weird places around the coop and run. Sometimes under the roost boards, once broken there too, by the outside water pan, on the pavers outside a main door, etc. Egg usually looked like it had been rolled quite a bit as the brown color was faded, rubbed off or uneven.
I thought these eggs were maybe from a different new layer as I did have a video of Ginger popping out an egg during a jump down from the nest box. But I also know for a fact that Ginger does usually lay in the nest boxes.
So..... Marti. I just basically decided to not worry about her as long as she was doing fine otherwise. Her health checks were great although her vent did seem small and rather dry as noted. Except this last check a few days ago - her vent definitely was moister. But I still
Never ever caught her in the regular nest boxes. I have cameras. I’ve only seen her once eying up the nest box she used to use (still closed off even though the sick hen was culled on 7/27). And yesterday I did see her eye up the main nest boxes - first time ever for that.
Then this happened this morning:
Ok! She’s laying! Not small dark brown speckled newbie eggs like before. Excellent!
While I can trim her butt feathers so the egg doesn’t stick on the way out, more importantly she doesn’t seem to know that she’s laying!
How can I get her to understand she’s laying and to go into the nest boxes? I could open up her preferred nest box - although I really don’t want to do that as the next time I need that area for a hospital or jail it’ll just get closed off again.
I could make a nest box that is the same as the main nest boxes and lock her in the coop with that and see if she’ll start laying in the box and then move the box slowly toward the other boxes...? Except I leave in less 2 weeks for a 3 week vacation. Do you think she’ll transition in that time frame? Or is there some other way to get her to realize she’s laying and use a nest box?
Sorry for the super long post but thought having the full story would better spark ideas to address this issue. Has anyone else had this happen??
