Founds eggs, two concerns

[detz]

Yesterday I went to clean the coop and I found eight eggs in the corner of the coop, not in the nesting box (We have three chickens). They're pretty small so they still appear to be starter eggs but today I've found nothing so is it normal for them to have days off? We did have a party yesterday so maybe they're stressed out? Also, I took two of the eight and put them in the nesting box to get them to go in there but they've started packing down the same corner of the coop again. What can I do to convince them to use the nesting boxes?

 

[nchls school]

Yes, it is normal for young pullets, even older hens, to take time off. I would put a nesting box in the corner where you found the eggs. As time goes on they will find the nesting boxes you'd like the hens to lay in. Does it really matter where they are laying; you're getting eggs and that's great. I put dummy eggs in the nests where I want the hens to lay; this might work for you.

 

[Shelley Dawn]

I put golf balls two of the nesting boxes as we didn't have any dummy eggs to hand. They all choose the boxes with the golf balls whenever possible!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

There may be some factors about your nest boxes that are making them less attractive to the birds than they are to you - can you post a photo or two of the interior of your coop? Baiting the nest (using golf balls, wooden eggs, etc is a better idea than using real eggs) is one step that can help to demonstrate that the boxes are a desirable place to lay. It is entirely normal for there to be days when a pullet/hen does not lay - when they first start to lay it is in fits and starts, and once they reach an pattern in their laying there are still days when they don't lay. Depending on breed the "average" rate can be anywhere from 3-6 eggs per week, per bird - so there can be 1-4 days that it would be entirely "normal" not to see eggs from a given bird. Do you know what breed(s) your birds are?

 

[nchls school]

White light bulbs work as dummy eggs. It has been many years and I have never had one break.

 

[aart]

There may be some factors about your nest boxes that are making them less attractive to the birds than they are to you - can you post a photo or two of the interior of your coop? Baiting the nest (using golf balls, wooden eggs, etc is a better idea than using real eggs) is one step that can help to demonstrate that the boxes are a desirable place to lay. It is entirely normal for there to be days when a pullet/hen does not lay - when they first start to lay it is in fits and starts, and once they reach an pattern in their laying there are still days when they don't lay. Depending on breed the "average" rate can be anywhere from 3-6 eggs per week, per bird - so there can be 1-4 days that it would be entirely "normal" not to see eggs from a given bird. Do you know what breed(s) your birds are?

This^^

Nests should be easy to get up into and down out of.

Fake eggs in nests and put a bucket or something in the corner where they were laying to block there access to it.