I'm confused about egg collecting and production....

[CrzyChicLady]

I was taking all the eggs out of the coop everyday but now my hens have stop laying or moved their nests to a hidden location. My friend said if I take the eggs from the nest in the coop they will move their nest to protect the eggs. So how do I collect eggs from my coop everyday?? Right now I have 10 hens and ZERO eggs.

 

[nivtup]

For the most part you can collect daily without interrupting production.

Depending on the age of your birds, and the amount of light they get on a daily basis your birds will go through a molt, or a down period.

Our birds are just coming back online after taking the winter off. Not all are laying yet.

You can add a small light on a timer to get the daylight up to about 14 hours a day and they will resume laying.


Good luck

 

[chickened]

Taking eggs is most likely not the problem. Try putting some golf balls or plastic eggs in the nest.

 

[blefky]

You can also just leave a couple of "false" eggs in the nests. I have a golf ball and a couple of wooden eggs that I put in the nest boxes when my hens were very young, and I've just left them in there. I've never had a problem. As a matter of fact, the other day I had them locked out of the coop for a few hours while I did my major spring clean up in there, and when I finally opened up the pop door for them there was a major rush to the nest boxes. Apparently everyone had been dancing around just waiting for that door to open back up!

 

[cybercat]

I free range and first year can be a problem for new pullets or new owners. Here are some tips. One always keep fake egg in nest box. Two collect when there are no chickens in nest box and they are done laying for day. This usally means at lock up for night or when you just open coop.

Now since yours are not laying in coop you will have to put everyone on lock down again for a few days. What this means is they are not allowed out of coop at all for at least 3 days if not a week. This helps retrain them to lay in coop. I had to do this first year and have not had to do it since. Ofcourse we have lookdown in winter due to snow so that helps in that way. But first year pullets will lay anywhere till you force train them right to nestbox. The more eggs you leave in nest boxes the better. Hens love to lay where other hens have already for they now it is safe.

 

[Ridgerunner]

These links might help you. There are a lot of reasons they might stop laying. You might see something in these links that explains your problem.

Virginia Tech – Stopped Laying
http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/2902/2902-1097/2902-1097.pdf

Florida – Stopped Laying –
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/ps/ps02900.pdf

When they all stop laying, my first thought is a molt. I'm not sure where you are in the world. If you are in the southern hemisophere, then the days are getting shorter and this is a likely explanation.

Maybe something is taking or eating the eggs. A lot of animals that eat eggs will only eat a few and will often leave signs behind. When they all disappear, I usually think of a dog or a human. There are plenty of other things that might eat eggs, such as snakes, possums, raccoons, rats, or chickens, but I'd expect some to not get eaten with them or that you would see signs.

Maybe they are hiding nests from you. That has happened to me before, but that has always been one or two chickens, not all of them. You might try locking them in the coop and run for a couple of days if you can. If eggs show up, that might mean that they are hiding nests or it might mean you have locked an egg eater out of the hen house. When I have one hiding a nest and I lock them up, the nest hider will pace the fence when it is time for her to lay an egg, desperately wanting out, but eventually she gives up and lays in the nest. It sometimes takes longer, but usually if I leave them locked up for three or four days, she starts laying in the right nest again. It really helps to find her hidden nest and take those eggs away though.

Good luck! This is not always easy to solve.

 

[CrzyChicLady]

My hens are a year old. When do they get too old and stop laying?

Lock them in the coop? I don't have a run, just a coop where they get locked up at night and they free-range during the day. Will this be ok?

I've got to do some remodeling to the nest boxes. Right now they don't have boards in-between to seperate the boxes and I don't have a perch so they are roosting with butts hanging over and pooping in the boxes. I put a couple egg crates in there and the hens were laying in the crates until I took all the eggs. So I will do spring cleaning, remodeling, and add some golf balls, lock them up for a couple days and I should have eggs?

I live in VA. Could this be a moulting stage? How long will this last? Can I just wait the moulting stage out?

Who knew chickens could be so hard?

 

[mistymeadowchicks]

You've gotten some great advice from others. Assuming they are laying elsewhere--a few points to consider. Has anything happened to upset their little chicken world? Mine quit using the nesting boxes when a raccoon got into the coop. It took a few days for them to settle back down. I also had a single "favorite" nest abandoned which seemed odd; when I did my weekly clean-out--I found/ smelled the broken (& very rotten) egg in the bottom. PEWWW! I wouldn't want to nest on that mess either. I also have a little mutt dog that occasionally "collects" eggs for me--I've found several buried whole in the garden. '

' Golf balls or plastic eggs, & locking them in the coop/ run to help them figure it out, should fix the problem. Good luck.

 

[CrzyChicLady]

Went out today and did some remodeling in the chicken coop. I put a perch up so chicken butts don't hang into the nesting area. I put dividers up in the nesting area so they will have there own nesting boxes. I also cleaned all the old straw out and put new in. I put some golf balls in a few of the nesting boxes. I hope this will persuade the hens to lay in the coop. While I was working outside I found one egg in the shed and two nests with two eggs each in the tortoise house. Silly chickens.