free ranger laying in random spot

[sueandthe6]

I have a couple girls who can get out over the 6 ft chain link. I do range almost daily and they don't go anywhere but are laying in a small "aisle" aside of my house. It started with the red girl laying in the corner of the little alcove outside my front door. One morning I didn't give her enough time to move before letting the dogs out and since that day she hasn't left me an egg there. I didn't know where she was laying and wondered what my chances were of figuring it out. Today- as I was spring cleaning. I found a stash of eggs. 4 were hers, one leghorn, and one cochin. I picked up all but one hoping too encourage them to keep laying there for now. What I am wondering is if it would be prudent to try to set something up nest box like to encourage them to keep at It in this same place or will that just disturb them? It is pure luck that I found this spot and there should be more leghorn eggs so I suspect there might still be an alternate spot I didn't find. Any reliable way to keep them using this same spot?

 

[Kelsie2290]

I do the fake nest thing like you mention. Mine free range also, and I gave up trying to make them all lay in the coops. With free range birds, if they have access to a lot of places outside that they would consider a good place to hide eggs, you usually wind up with hidden nests being an ongoing problem. Some breeds are a lot worse than others. I wound up putting the "fake" hidden nests outside for them with a fake egg or two and just collecting eggs out of them like normal every day (old dog houses, buckets, barrels etc) it seems to keep the stubborn girls that want to hide eggs happy and I still get the eggs and don't wind up with a bunch of surprise mixed chicks.