First Egg! Not layed in nesting box?!

[MaeMom]

This morning I discovered our first egg! The girls have been louder then normal this week so I suspected it was on the way. And this morning there it was!

However, it wasn't in the nesting box! It was on the floor of the coop.
How do I get them to lay in the nesting box?

Was the first one just a surprise to her and she didn't know what to do?

I'm excited for the egg and hope the other three begin laying soon.

 

[gonnyto2]

congratulations!! i can't wait to find my first egg!!!

 

[Stacifay]

I also was shocked yesterday with our first egg, it was in the box, however, today's egg was not - it was below their roosting rods inside the coop and the egg was very soft shelled - yesterday's first egg was perfect. Here is my pic. The reason for my shock was my girls are only 19 weeks old! We got them when they were a week old and have the pic from their first day here. Look at the pic and tell me if you think they are older than one week old. If the feed store owner was wrong about their age - then that explains it. Very concerned. Girls were supposedly hatched on March 28, 2015. Thoughts?

 

[MaeMom]

Ours were hatched that week too! I wasn't expecting eggs for awhile yet. But one girl has a very developed comb, far bigger and redder than the others, so suspect it was from her and she's just an early developer.

 

[Stacifay]

Yes, two of my girls are much more developed than the other two - but 19 weeks seems super early! I'm so glad I had purchased the layen feed last week in anticipation of the needed calcium - started mixing it with their starter feed yesterday. I see from reading other threads it is common to have soft shelled eggs in the beginning of their laying days. Out 7 year old fried the first egg last night and declared it the best egg he had ever tasted (he may be a bit biased ) Am still searching through threads for ways to encourage girls to lay eggs only in their nesting box. Could it be she knew it was a deficient egg and so didn't bother going to the box?? Silly idea - right?

 

[MaeMom]

Our first egg was fine. Nice shell but I haven't cracked it open yet.
I think it might have come as a surprise to her

 

[MaeMom]

Today I found an egg in the nesting box! When I looked I could tell right away that she finally discovered it because all the bedding was all tossed around. I opened the top and there was a perfect clean egg! YAY!

Last night I put two egg sized rocks in there. I'm not sure if that is what caused her to lay in the box or not, but it didn't hurt!