How do you find your freerange chickens eggs

[horsejody]

One of my hens, Buffy, used to lay her egg in the barn cats' food dish every day. Mildred and Queenie used to hide them all over the place. We recently mooved some round bales out of a 3 sided shed and discovered a cache of 18 eggs between 2 bales. Sadly, those birds were killed by the now infamous neighbor dogs.

 

[dancingbear]

Mine usually return to the coop to lay, but now and then they get a wild hair to lay elsewhere. Then I start keeping them in until about 3 or 4 PM for awhile, to break the habit. I make a few changes on the nest boxes at the same time, they like nest remodeling. When I start letting them out earlier again, they usually keep laying in the nests, at least for awhile!

I sometimes find hidden nests outdoors, or in the barn, but usually it's just by dumb luck if I do.