Has anyone ever seen this??? Laying from ROOST!

[SeaChick]

We adopted this BO last November. After a week or so and she'd adjusted to her new home, she laid a few eggs in the nest boxes, properly. Then she stopped laying. We think her molt was interrupted by our pre-dawn supplemental light.

Sometime in December we found she had laid a "rubber" (soft-shelled) egg from the roost: it fell to the droppings board about 8" below the roost. We figured she didn't realize it was an egg because it was soft, just thought it was poop so didn't go to the nest box.

Then no eggs at all for another month. This morning I found ANOTHER egg (definitely hers) on the droppings board. This one has a normal shell.

What is going on?????!!?!?!?!?!?!?

I am not pleased about this. The egg was cracked on one end, of course, from the drop. Why is she not going into the nest box??????

I thought for a while it might be because the roost was too high for her to get down from comfortably (she'd always take hours longer to get down than the other girls) so we added a half-ramp and although I've never seen her use it, she's always already down with the other girls in the morning, now.

So what gives, and what should I do??

I worry that maybe she's been laying more of these but they've been falling to the ground and getting eaten. Her comb never got pale, which I thought they were supposed to when the hens stopped laying during a molt: its been red all winter even though she has only laid these 2 eggs since early November.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

THANK YOU!!

 

[fivebigreds]

I think that the egg just comes down at night and she can't wait til dawn to lay. I have had several shelless eggs under the roost also. I have found hens trying to find the nest in the dark when i open their door in the morn so it's just when the urge hits.

 

[Itsme]

I have found the occassional egg under the roost........fortunately I have a thick layer of shavings there so have never lost one to breakage. I think they just unexpectally( is that a word?) drop out now and then. Hard to imagine but I think thats what happens....lol!

 

[LoneCowboy]

I had one this week too. I shortened the supplimental light by 1.5 hours the day before. I just figuered I messed up her schedule.

 

[HenHaven]

There was a post a few weeks back by Kelly, asking the same thing. Someone posted that if a bird is startled for any reason during the night, this can happen.

Kelly figured out that their pet rabbit was triggering the motion-sensor light during his nocturnal frolicking. She put a curtain over the coop window to block the light and the problem was solved.

Is there anything that could be startling her at night? Could it be the light that comes on?