Hens laying eggs under my shed!

[Chick named Lola]

So I moved a bunch of rocks etc...out of the way so the hens could go under the shaded shed and lay in the cool dirt. They took to this idea right away. Unfortunately, instead of coming back to the coop to lay, they must be laying them under there since I have maybe 1 egg a day all of a sudden.

Soooo, I close it up, despite the heat and BINGO, I get 4 eggs from my 5 girls! Darnit, I really wanted them to be able to enjoy that, they were having so much fun under there. They have plenty of shade in the big run I just built for them with fans and a fan inside the coop but I felt the earth under there and it is pretty darn cool! I bet there was a lot of bugs too.

 

[Beaker Duck]

You might consider keeping it blocked until you believe the egg laying is done for the day. In doing that, they cna have a few hours of coolness, and you can have your eggs without having to crawl under the shed with them!