Hen laying in pen

[lee3343]

One of my Ameracaunas just started laying and both eggs were in the outside pen. I have two nesting boxes but don't know how to get the hens to lay in there. I know the girls have been exploring because the excelsior is tamped down and my fake ceramic eggs are always moved. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[RobertPlamondon]

One of my Ameracaunas just started laying and both eggs were in the outside pen. I have two nesting boxes but don't know how to get the hens to lay in there. I know the girls have been exploring because the excelsior is tamped down and my fake ceramic eggs are always moved. Any advice would be appreciated.

What I like to do is:

• Make sure the nest box is the darkest, most secluded, and softest area available.
• Ruin the other places the pullet is laying by making them better-lit, less secluded, and (easiest of all) harder. Piling some lumber scraps or rocks in her preferred nesting place will do.
• Wait. Pullets are often surprised by their first eggs. Soon they'll be in the nest boxes at the right times.
• If all else fails, put a nest box where they're actually laying. But I'd wait a while first.

Robert

 

[lee3343]

Robert, thanks for your reply. The nesting boxes are in the darkest most soft part of the coop. If she continues to lay eggs in the outside pen, I guess we can always add one out there. But she is depositing it in the center of the area so I can't really cover it. However, we'll just wait and see for a little while to see if she will lay her eggs inside. What do they say about the best LAID plans?!

 

[GingersHuman]

Or like my silly White Leghorn Cotton, she scratched all of the straw out of the nest boxes and then laid an egg in the straw on the ground, haha.

 

[donrae]

New layers sometimes need time to figure things out. I'd just be patient.

Or, she may continue to lay where she wants. This hen loves the feeder and has been leaving an egg there for a few months now ....

 

[SueT]

I have a hen that's 1 1/2 yr old and I think, if there is such a thing, that she's egg-incontinent. She'll sit on the nest regularly, but more often than not, the egg ends up elsewhere -----in front of the nest, out on their porch, or in the middle of the run. The location always seems random, not deliberate. These are hard shelled eggs with nothing wrong with them. I wonder if the egg just doesn't come all the way out until she starts walking. It has been this way for months. I've stopped worrying about it and just look around for her egg.

 

[lee3343]

Thanks to all of you who weighed in. I'm just going to relax and let eggs fall where they may. Hopefully, my other girls will figure it out

 

[Shaunassy]

When i first started out with hens i was told to put a golf ball in each of the nesting boxes and it works. The golf ball looks and weighs similar enough to an egg so it tricks the hens into believe another hen "layed an egg there" so it must be a safe place to lay. Since doing that all my hens have layed in the nesting boxes, even those who layed for the first time never have layed anywhere but the boxes since the balls are in there.

 

[Teila]

Howdy lee3343

You have already received some great advice and I just wanted to add that one of my Bantam Cochins [Pekin] has a very fluffy butt and while she lays in the nest box, if she lingers while the egg dries, it sticks to her butt feathers and ends up falling off either in the coop or somewhere in the run.

One day I even had to bail her up in the garden and remove the egg that she was still dragging around

Just another thought .. if you notice that she is looking like she is going to lay an egg, can you lock her in the coop at all so that she has no other choice but to lay in there? If you can do that a couple of times, she might work it out.

 

[SueT]

I just wanted to add that one of my Bantam Cochins [Pekin] has a very fluffy butt and while she lays in the nest box, if she lingers while the egg dries, it sticks to her butt feathers and ends up falling off either in the coop or somewhere in the run.

Ha! Interesting! This may be what is happening to mine...I've never caught her in the act!
Sue