Eggs on Dropping Board

[tsperry88]

I know the chickens are just laying when their body decides too, but is there anything I can do to get them to lay during daylight hours? I have 2 that keep laying while it's dark. It's their first year laying. In the photo, one actually went to the nest box while it was still mostly dark.

 

[Aapomp831]

Do you have a light in your coop, or a streetlight that shines in a window? Is it super early in the morning when they lay, like when it would normally be light outside with longer daylight hours?
it is probably something that will work itself out as they get older. There is no way to change when they lay.

 

[aart]

I have 2 that keep laying while it's dark. It's their first year laying. In the photo, one actually went to the nest box while it was still mostly dark.

How long have they been laying?
How many birds and how many nests?
Pics of nests would help here.
Do they also lay in other places than the board or nests?

 

[tsperry88]

There is no unnatural light. The coop is a long ways from any potential sources. I'm not sure when they lay. The coop has automation, so I can have a light turn on 45 minutes before sunrise. I watch them on the cam start standing up and getting restless around that time. Maybe that would help

 

[tsperry88]

How long have they been laying?
How many birds and how many nests?
Pics of nests would help here.
Do they also lay in other places than the board or nests?

15 birds and 6 nests. Check out the pic in the beginning of this thread. It shows them and 2 eggs where they dropped. I only find eggs in the nest box during the day and on the board first thing in the morning. No other places. Half my flock has been laying for about 4 months. The other half have just started. The eggs on the dropping board are large, so I suspect older birds. They don't sleep in the nest box, that one found her way just before sunrise.

 

[aart]

Check out the pic in the beginning of this thread.

Can't see nests in that pic.

 

[Anne02]

Can't see nests in that pic.

On the back wall. There's a chicken in there, and a glare on her eye.

 

[oldhen2345]

I have an old hen who has become incontinent of eggs. She used to lay in the nesting boxes, but in the last year, I have been finding them all over the yard and run. She just lets them drop wherever she is, never in the same place twice. I have to go on an egg hunt every day. She doesn't lay that often, but never in the coop or nesting boxes anymore. Is that a sign of dementia in hens??

 

[Anne02]

 

[tsperry88]

Can't see nests in that pic.

Here is a better one.