Free range laying question

[thechickman04]

my hens have been laying really well...here lately i have been letting them free range during the day..i havent been getting as many eggs since..will the hens lay somwhere else other than their nests if they freerange

 

[SpottedCrow]

If their nesting area is comfortable to them, they'll make a mad dash when they get "the urge".

Obelisk and Penny both would run to get in the house to lay on the couch, the chair or in the cat carrier. Penny preferred the new couch, but Obelisk seems to like the cat carrier the best for right now...she used to use the chicken chair.

 

[karrie]

Mine free range, but make a run for the nesting box when it's "time". Occasionally one will lay an egg in the middle of the pen!

 

[thechickman04]

ok maybe their being lazy...

 

[rufus]

You probably find secret hoards of eggs hidden away. Watch to see where they go and look there for they nests. Look under cars or trailers or in piles of junk. High grass is a favorite place.

Good Luck,

Rufus

 

[Chirpy]

Generally mine go back to the coop to lay their eggs but I once I found a beautiful brown egg laid behind a hay bale in the barn.

So, they don't always use their nestboxes... people have found lots of eggs in "hidden" stashes when their hens free range.

 

[thechickman04]

most of them run to the nest boxes...but im missing a few eggs a day i follow them but they never stray too far from the coop

 

[Nichole77]

My girls free range but I just have a yard. They always use the nest box, but sometimes if they find a new and interesting place to lay then they will. My kid makes a fort, they try it out. new rabbit hutch, lets lay there. You get the idea. But then they return to the old tried and true nest.