First egg.. cracked and under roosting pole

[themkleclair]

Hi All...

The day we have all been waiting for haas finally arrived! We received our first egg from our flock of four. The only issue is that we found it under the roosting pole outside one of the two nesting boxes. We have hay in the nesting boxes. Does anyone have any suggestions of what we can do to get the ladies to lay in the nesting boxes? Also, should I switch them all to layer feed now? What about oyster shells?

Thanks for your hep and chicken insight!

 

[Jedwards]

If they're starting to lay eggs you can give them layer pellets or crumble which ever you prefer, i always put plastic easter eggs in the nest boxes and sometimes I'd like to think it worked I also stuff the laying boxes with straw or hay, hope this helps!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Some girls figure it all out on the first try and some take a bit to figure out the whole process - including where to lay their eggs. It may also be that this one caught her by surprise while she was roosted for the night - while *most* eggs are laid during daylight hours, that first egg or two is when the system is just figuring out what to do and how to do it, so things aren't always on schedule.
Baiting your nest boxes will help....using fake eggs, golf balls, etc. It gives them the idea of what that place is for and leads them to believe that another hen has already deemed the box "safe" by laying her eggs there too. Have you seen them checking the boxes out at all yet?
How high are your roosts from the surface the egg landed on and what, if anything, is under the roost (bedding, PDZ on a poop board, sand, etc)? For your sake and that of your eggs during the learning phase you may want to put a little extra padding under the roost area to catch any other misfires and keep them from being cracked in the fall.

 

[themkleclair]

I put some easter eggs in the boxes, as well as some extra straw under the roosting boards (we have a sand poop board, so I thought your suggestion of some straw to soften the landing was a good idea). I am excited to see what tomorrow brings!!! Thank you all for your advice.

 

[Meeka3]

When my first lot of chickens started laying, one little one was so excited while I was cleaning my garden she didn't stop scratching , she just dropped her egg right in front of me. They soon started laying in the boxes, but then they all wanted the same box, so I put plastic eggs in the other boxes, then one by one they all changed to another box. Sometimes I have 4 chooks all sitting on top of each other while the rest of the boxes lay empty. Then another time I couldn't work out why one chook stopped laying until I found 20 eggs in a very dense part of my garden.

 

[themkleclair]

Help!!! So i has been 6 days since we got our first "cracked egg"… is it normal to go this long and not receive any other eggs? I did find a small (grape size) pouch-looking thing in the run on Saturday, but that is it. I'm getting nervous that something is wrong with my lil' lady.

 

[Meeka3]

Help!!! So i has been 6 days since we got our first "cracked egg"… is it normal to go this long and not receive any other eggs?  I did find a small (grape size) pouch-looking thing in the run on Saturday, but that is it. I'm getting nervous that something is wrong with my lil' lady.

When my first young chook started laying, she laid one egg and got chased off the nest by the older chooks, and then it turned into 2 weeks and I hadn't seen another egg. I was searching everywhere in this time but couldn't find them, and one day I was looking in the agapanthus which are quite thick and I found 14 eggs, so she had laid an egg every day. If your chooks are free range look in all the bushes because they can pick funny places, the more hidden it is, the better they like it.

 

[Meeka3]

When my first young chook started laying, she laid one egg and got chased off the nest by the older chooks, and then it turned into 2 weeks and I hadn't seen another egg. I was searching everywhere in this time but couldn't find them, and one day I was looking in the agapanthus which are quite thick and I found 14 eggs, so she had laid an egg every day. If your chooks are free range look in all the bushes because they can pick funny places, the more hidden it is, the better they like it.

I have now found 3 different spots with large numbers of eggs, so I'm always on the lookout, and my dog Buddy likes it because he always gets a few of the older eggs.

 

[themkleclair]

Unfortunately, my flock is not free -range... we are in a residential zoned area and can only let them range while I out with them. So I know my oldest lady has not been laying in the yard. This is why I am concerned.

 

[themkleclair]

We finally received our 2nd egg!!! Woot! Thank you for all your advice and kind words!