Free range your pullets and chase the eggs

[gadus]

I raised a dozen Ameraucanas last spring/fall and let them free-range a lot - too much. They got so fond of roosting in the trees that I almost didn't get them into the coop. After a coon got one of them in the night and after a few days of being locked up inside, they started to wise up but now they lay any damn place and I haven't had the time to secure the yard so they can't get out. Obviously I have to let them go outside so currently have no choice but to let them go where they will and then attempt to find the eggs. The ones that thankfully do lay insidethe coop lay in the poop catcher, not in the eggs boxes. I think the lesson is you can go overboard with the free-ranging nonsense. And, truthfully, if your yard is not fly-proof, Ameraucanas are a flightly bird to begin with and will find a way out so you better be ready to repel flights out.

 

[chooki]

I would put multiple alluring nesting boxes with soft, dry straws (or pine shavings) and fake eggs into the dark corners of the coop and lock the pullets up for a few days, until they are trained to use the nesting boxes, before letting them free range again.