Finding Eggs??

[lauren56]

Hi, I’m not sure if this is the right forum to be posting my question under, but I’m hoping someone can give me some pointers. I have a flock of 35 chickens. 30 hens with 5 roosters. They free range all the time; they’re never cooped up. We had one free range flock and then several flocks that stayed cooped constantly, but the free range flock seemed much happier, laid eggs more frequently, and overall seemed healthier; so we mereged everyone together into one big Free range flock. I live on a pretty big farm, so they’re free to wonder and do as they please, but once I mergered the flocks I was no longer getting eggs from the usual spots that the hens laid. They had nesting boxes inside of a stand alone coop, but were never interested in them at all. Instead they made nest under the pine tree in the back yard. Now it’s been four months and I can’t find a single egg anywhere. Does anyone have tips on getting them to lay in a certain area every time or am I going to have to put them in a coop to get eggs again? Thanks!

 

[Percheron chick]

You need to lock them up and retrain them to lay in the nesting box. Clean the boxes out and place new bedding. Don't let them out until they consistently lay inside. Might be a week. They'll act like they are dying but be strong. They should return even if out freeranging to lay. If they don't catch on, they stay up and only get a few hours out in the late afternoon right before bedtime.
No point in feeding 35 birds and not getting breakfast out of it.

 

[lauren56]

You need to lock them up and retrain them to lay in the nesting box. Clean the boxes out and place new bedding. Don't let them out until they consistently lay inside. Might be a week. They'll act like they are dying but be strong. They should return even if out freeranging to lay. If they don't catch on, they stay up and only get a few hours out in the late afternoon right before bedtime.
No point in feeding 35 birds and not getting breakfast out of it.

That will be my project this week then! Thank you so much!