- May 5, 2011
- 50
- 2
- 48
Hi, again! Last post for today, I promise! 
Long story short, my 11 Buff Orpington hens have recently moved from full-time coop living to a free-range situation. It's been wonderful for them, but I can't find their eggs.
Before, when they were cooped up, they would sometimes lay in an old chiminea that was in the coop, and they would often lay in the woodchips on the ground wherever. Now, I have found a clutch of 4 eggs twice, and a lot of single eggs laid all about the lawn and in the brush. After I took the second batch of 4 eggs from the one clutch, I haven't found an egg there again.
To complicate matters, there are really two distinct flocks that live here and share a coop: my 11 ladies, and my neighbor's 18 ladies and 2 roos. I can't lock my ladies in the coop until they lay because my neighbor's ladies, who know where to lay and behave themselves, need to be able to come and go as they please.
Once or twice I've found my ladies' eggs in the coop, mainly on the ground and not in the nesting boxes.
How do I convince my hens to lay in the coop? And if not in the coop, how do I find out where they are laying, and keep them from changing locations?
Thanks!
Long story short, my 11 Buff Orpington hens have recently moved from full-time coop living to a free-range situation. It's been wonderful for them, but I can't find their eggs.
Before, when they were cooped up, they would sometimes lay in an old chiminea that was in the coop, and they would often lay in the woodchips on the ground wherever. Now, I have found a clutch of 4 eggs twice, and a lot of single eggs laid all about the lawn and in the brush. After I took the second batch of 4 eggs from the one clutch, I haven't found an egg there again.
To complicate matters, there are really two distinct flocks that live here and share a coop: my 11 ladies, and my neighbor's 18 ladies and 2 roos. I can't lock my ladies in the coop until they lay because my neighbor's ladies, who know where to lay and behave themselves, need to be able to come and go as they please.
Once or twice I've found my ladies' eggs in the coop, mainly on the ground and not in the nesting boxes.
How do I convince my hens to lay in the coop? And if not in the coop, how do I find out where they are laying, and keep them from changing locations?
Thanks!
