MIChickandGuinea
Songster
We have 8 laying hens (though one has gone broody ... AGAIN ... and one seems to be on complete strike ... so really, only 6 hens who are laying eggs at this moment). We have 4 generous nesting boxes that the hens have always used with great consistency, never laying anywhere else.
Now we have 10 tiny little bantam hens just starting to lay their first eggs. I had meant to get a separate nesting box set up for them in their own separate-but-connected coop/pen, but thought I had more time because I had read that bantam breeds lay much later than standards (if they really even lay at all) ...
But the lovely little bantam girls all started laying in the nest boxes in the main coop, and I have never seen any competition for nesting box time - at any given time, 1-2 boxes might be occupied, the rest vacant. Eggs show up in all four boxes, so there's not a favored one or a rejected one.
But while we were away for a long weekend, my dad was watching the birds and he commented on how few eggs we got for as many chickens as we have. I was puzzled, so started an Easter egg hunt ... and found that while we were gone, lots of standard and bantam eggs were just laid on the floor of the bantam coop, where I don't usually even see the full-size laying hens at all, much less for egg laying!! It definitely happened while we were gone, because I had been checking that coop for eggs daily, as we are getting first eggs from some of the bantams, and wanted to be sure none were laying in silly places. Till now, they weren't!
Any idea what made both large and small birds decide to lay eggs in the hardest-to-reach place imaginable?? Any idea how to make them stop?!
Thanks!
Now we have 10 tiny little bantam hens just starting to lay their first eggs. I had meant to get a separate nesting box set up for them in their own separate-but-connected coop/pen, but thought I had more time because I had read that bantam breeds lay much later than standards (if they really even lay at all) ...
But the lovely little bantam girls all started laying in the nest boxes in the main coop, and I have never seen any competition for nesting box time - at any given time, 1-2 boxes might be occupied, the rest vacant. Eggs show up in all four boxes, so there's not a favored one or a rejected one.
But while we were away for a long weekend, my dad was watching the birds and he commented on how few eggs we got for as many chickens as we have. I was puzzled, so started an Easter egg hunt ... and found that while we were gone, lots of standard and bantam eggs were just laid on the floor of the bantam coop, where I don't usually even see the full-size laying hens at all, much less for egg laying!! It definitely happened while we were gone, because I had been checking that coop for eggs daily, as we are getting first eggs from some of the bantams, and wanted to be sure none were laying in silly places. Till now, they weren't!
Any idea what made both large and small birds decide to lay eggs in the hardest-to-reach place imaginable?? Any idea how to make them stop?!
Thanks!
