I am rarely home during the day, so this morning I spent out with the girls! I have only heard their "egg song" from the house a couple times, and had never seen them in the nest boxes. "Trouble" went in first, sang the egg song for about 3 minutes, than ran back out. She layed her egg! The next two girls went in, sang the egg song for ever! They would get in the nest boxes, sit for awile, then hop out and nervously walk back, and forth, than back to the nest boxes, sing the egg song, than hop back out- NO EGGS! This went on > 1 hour. So I went in the house. Within a few minutes, they ran out of the coop. Go figure, they had both layed eggs. So, do you think they didn't want to lay them in front of me?
Layers actually do prefer privacy. They like to feel safe and secure, even if they aren't going to actually set on the eggs and hatch chicks. Some folks actually put curtains over nest boxes, or use really deep nest boxes so the layers can have some more privacy.
