How to keep them from laying in the woods

[Stormy]

I have 26 hens. They are about 25 weeks old. When egg production dropped, we thought it was the heat. Turns out that a couple of the girls are laying their eggs at the edge of the woods (They free range on 8 acres).

We thought about leaving them in the coop and run for the next couple of weeks to get them used to using the nesting boxes. (most do use them, but since we are not sure which of the girls are doing the laying in the woods we plan to keep all of them cooped up in the run/coop).

They don't seem to all lay first thing in the morning, some are laying well into the afternoon, so this is why we were thinking of not letting them out of the coop/run at all for the couple of weeks.

Any other suggestions?

 

[junebuggena]

I've had to do the same thing. It took them being shut in their run for over a week before everyone figured out that they should lay in the nest boxes.

 

[aart]

Sounds like the simplest solution......most folks blanche in horror at locking up their poor birds.
So maybe after a few days of lockdown, try letting them out just a couple hours before sunset.