I found three eggs on the ground of the coop all broken this afternoon

[Farmeratlast]

I have six astraherlorps and 2 Aracauna. One of the Aracauna's laid her first egg in the pig pen. We did not have nesting boxes in their house yet. So in they went (three for 8 chickens is that enough?). I kept her locked up and she started laying in the boxes. Then I didn't see anything for a day and we got a brown egg (Astralorp right?) but she laid it in the goat manger one day and in the nesting boxes (today) and that is when I saw three blue eggs broken on the ground at the end of their roost bar. Those eggs seemed soft shelled but all the rest were fine before this. Is it possible she is laying from where she roosts onto the ground? I am going to keep them all locked up tomorrow and see what I get. Maybe the other Araucana is laying too and hers are soft. I'm perplexed and these are my first chickens so I don't have much experience in trying to figure out what is going wrong (other than my husband kept putting off having the boxes in there before our first egg ). They are going to hate being locked up as they normally are out all day long with lots of acreage to explore. My thinking is that now that I have two (possible three and even more if they are hiding their laying places) hens that have used the box they will do so tomorrow in front of the rest of the girls and if I keep checking on them I can let them out when I get at least two.

Or should I be handling this differently?

Thanks.

J

 

[newchicksnducks]

The soft shell eggs found under the roost are what I call the "Ooops, what was that!?!" egg. I don't think the bird actually realizes it is about to lay an egg, albeit a soft shelled one. My new layers would frequently pass these ones and I would find them on the droppings board under the roost when I opened up the hen house each morning. They probably thought they were just constipated My EE was the first to lay at 18 weeks, and we had the nest boxes in when she was only 16 weeks. She would ignore the boxes and lay on the coop floor in the corner. I tried to discourage this by placing a box in the corner, she just used a different corner. It wasn't untill the other girls "discovered" the nest boxes and 4 of them layed their first eggs in the nests the same day, that the EE decided to finally use the nest boxes. Locking them up will probably give them a nudge in the right direction. Time will help the girls get a better routine. Offer oyster shell to help harden up the egg shells. Good luck!

 

[they'reHISchickens]

Find some golf balls or fake ceramic eggs to put in the nests. You have to show them where to lay