How do you redirect the egg laying?

[NottinghamChicks]

Finally got eggs yesterday but it was left in the middle of the coop. Tonight I got another tucked away between the nest box and wall. I have had an egg in the nest box for a month now to encourage the proper location for laying but they didn't pay much attention.
Any tried and true ideas?

 

[BantamoftheOpera]

I've had some luck getting down on their level and showing them where the wooden egg goes. I've got 2-3 laying in the nesting boxes.

 

[GAchick]

What does your set-up look like? Can you post pictures?

 

[jasonm11]

Quote:
Good question. I have an EE that layed 15 eggs in my driveway culvert and an RIR that likes to deliver by air mail from 5ft roost.

 

[wsdareme]

Most of mine have figured out the nesting boxes. I started initially with ceramic eggs in all the boxes. It was getting too hard to tell the real eggs from the ceramic, so I took the fake ones out. Things are going fairly well...

The older hens have picked about 4 of the 8 boxes to use and pretty much ignore the rest. But, I have some younger hens that are just starting to lay, and heaven knows where you're going to find their eggs. Under the feeder. In the middle of the floor. Some of them are laying while they're roosting -- I found 3 on the poop board one day. I'm lucky if those aren't cracked. They even lay an occasional egg out in the wet shavings in the run. One egg was laid in a place that I'm not sure how the hen even fit in there to begin with. I had some Tidy Cat buckets sitting on top of the nest boxes (they're great for BOSS, scratch, etc.) and have found a couple eggs sitting on top of them.

I think most of your hens will figure it out eventually. The rest, well, just always keep an eye out for eggs where you don't expect to find them...

 

[NottinghamChicks]

Quote:
Good question. I have an EE that layed 15 eggs in my driveway culvert and an RIR that likes to deliver by air mail from 5ft roost.

Hope we both find the answer to our dilemma!!

 

[HoustonChicks]

The eggs in the culvert sound like my experiences! My bantam hens are 6 & 7 months old & I get several eggs, but not nearly enough to account for the hen population. Even though I walk my yard often, I can't find new nests. Then, I find eggs in a flower pot or on the bare ground. They have nice, comfy nest boxes in the chicken house; why do they ignore them?! I put a box of hay on my porch for a kitten to sleep in. Now I get eggs in that. I've tried big overturned pots with hay and a golf ball as bait ("ooh, look at this, wouldn't it be a great place to lay?") scattered over the yard. I'm hoping there's not a huge nest under my house, since it's up on blocks and chickens go under the house (& I swore they wouldn't do that because they wouldn't go where it's dark). When I do find a pile of eggs, I'm afraid to use them because I don't know how long they've been there! So I keep looking every day!

 

[wsdareme]

Quote:
We go to such great lengths to provide them with safe, warm nests for their precious little eggs. I wonder what goes through their little chicken minds to prompt them to lay where they do?

You can use the "Flotation Method" to check the eggs. Put them in a bowl of water. If they sink, they're good; if they float, throw them out.

 

[Cavendish Chickens]

When I saw our roo mate with one of our hens, we went out and placed a nest box inside the coop for the girls. Then we found 2 eaten, soft shelled, eggs on top of the coop after we finished getting the box inside the coop. Well, one of the girls went in the box straight away and started nesting. The next day we had a perfect egg. We've kept golf balls in the coop since they were about 4 or 5 months old, and stuck them in the box when we put it in the coop. The other girl, on the other hand, only lays in the nest box once in a while. Her first egg was actually found on the ground out in the run. The rest have been in the middle of the coop. The first hen now lays hers between the nest box and the wall. Makes it harder to know if there's on in there or not. Have to climb in to see. (The coop is only 8x4x4 with two little doors. My husband and kids fit in there because they are smaller. I am just big enough I can't get in there. (We used to be able to open up the front, but now there is a beam in the way that holds the roof to the pen up.) I try not to worry about it too much. We plan to make a new coop and run in the spring.

 

[HoustonChicks]

Thanks for the "flotation" method to check eggs. Of course, I crack the unsure eggs over a cup before they go into the pot.
I really didn't remember that hens might pick anywhere to lay. I envisioned every egg laid in the boxes we lovingly provided....HA! But it IS a lot of fun to visit all the pots and boxes I've found eggs in. It's like an Easter egg hunt for me every day, it's the high point of my day to find them!
Family Member had never been around chickens. When we found that first egg on the bare cement floor, it was like an alien craft had landed, especially with a couple of soft-shelled eggs after that! He said, "I dunno, I feel funny eating our chickens' eggs. Aren't eggs their babies?" I told him, "Only if they sit on them for 21 days and they're not doing that. It's like a tomato plant that will bloom and make the fruit and it'll sit there and rot if you don't eat it. The hen is finished with it whether you eat it or not. Think of it as their gifts to us." So he's fine with it now, but he still won't bring in an egg with a dirty shell.