Help! with chicken laying at night?

[yesfantina]

Hi

Rosie's a red star 24 weeks old. She's been laying for 6 weeks now. The first 2 weeks she was laying in the nest box and/or making nest like depressions in the pine chips. For the last FOUR weeks I've been finding her eggs early in the morning underneath the roost bars! Could she be laying at night? It's been pretty much every single morning that she's been laying with no change to a later time frame. Unfortunately, about 1 out of every 3 eggs she's laid has broken. I'm thinking she's actually laying at NIGHT when she's sleeping (do they do that?) from the roost bar and it's dropping to the floor under her. I'm trying to keep the area under the roost fluffy to minimize breakage, but it's really disheartening to wake up to Rosie's broken egg.

The other 2 that are laying (another red star and a brahma bantam) are using the nest boxes. Well, one of the boxes. The other nest box we put golf balls into to encourage her to go there.

But I'm starting to really thing her hormones are messed up and she really is laying in her sleep instead of looking for a nesting place. :-(

Any ideas on what I can do to help her reset her schedule? It's been 4 weeks of this - most of her laying life!

She's the 'head chicken' and smart and friendly.

I'm going to start another thread about her (recently noticed) split beak...

HELP!
-Tina

 

[real_redhead]

Have no idea why that happens but I had one who was doing the same thing. Her first several eggs were soft shelled so they didn't break, I scrambled them and fed them back to the girls. Eventually she started laying in the box.

 

[ChickenAl]

We had a couple who layed soft shelled eggs from the roost. They were definitely laying at night. If the eggs are hard shelled then she may be laying them right before she comes off roost. The eggs fully harden their shells overnight, so soft shell will give you an indication of when they are laying. Also, is she getting some free choice oyster shell or another calcium supplement? There may be something lacking in the diet causing this. Check for mites or other health issues that may be contributing to this as well.

 

[yesfantina]

thanks

all her shells have been hard. She has free choice oyster shells, and I've been feeding back some chopped eggshells too.

Could worms contribute to this? I think they have some worm issues that we haven't treated for yet. I haven't seen any problems, but took a poop sample to the vet a couple weeks ago and it tested postivie for hook worms... I was waiting for it to get cooler out to treat them cause I figure the frozen ground would prevent re-infection.