Hen laying her eggs in the run

[oceansunset73]

I have 6 Rhode Island/Production Red hens, 6 months old. They have a total of 3 nesting boxes set inside the coup. The boxes are pretty dark and secluded. They have a pretty good layer of pine shavings topped off with straw. I opened the nesting boxes up a few weeks before they were about laying age, and added a ceramic fake egg in each box ahead of time. Since then, all of my girls are laying in the nesting boxes.....all except ONE. My little rebel girl Cinnamon has decided she would rather lay right smack dab in the middle of the run instead.

I work all day and when I come home from work, there is usually one egg sitting out in the open, in their run. A few days ago, I'm assuming someone might have accidentally stepped on it and broke it open, causing them all to get curious and they ended up eating it. I only found a few egg shell remains by the time I got home from work. Ugh!

Any ideas on how to get her to lay in the boxes with all of her other sisters? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you....

 

[ben0125]

Do all your hens lay?

 

[oceansunset73]

They are all laying now, yes. And all of them are using the nesting boxes, except Cinnamon.

 

[Tlmcq]

I'm assuming she's new to laying. She will get the hang of it. You could lock her in coop couple days til she starts laying in box or just let her work it out.

 

[oceansunset73]

She is new to laying, she just started laying last week actually.
Thank you so much, that sounds like a good idea. I will give that a try that this weekend. I appreciate the advise!

 

[Frazzemrat1]

My nest boxes are in my run, instead of in my coop. Maybe get one box for her to keep out in the run area? That is, if she persists with the laying out in the open.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

Forgot to post the pic of my boxes... I have one more that's high up on my coop, and I have one layer (the only one that lays at this point) who likes the privacy, since she can get away from everybody else to lay.

 

[oceansunset73]

My nest boxes are in my run, instead of in my coop. Maybe get one box for her to keep out in the run area? That is, if she persists with the laying out in the open.

Thanks so much. If she doesn't end up laying in the coup nesting boxes, this is the PERFECT plan B. Will definitely be giving this a try!