laying egg on the floor of the coop....

[gaitedgrl]

Everyday!
We just got our pullets this past Saturday. These are our first chickens....EVER. I have been reading and reading on here trying to get educated in everything chicken. Maybe the ladies need some time to adjust or maybe we can do something else for them...

So we built a chicken tractor. It has 6 nest boxes all along the one side of it. Because it is still cool here and due to it still being parked in our driveway we put particle board on the ground of the coop. when it is nice outside it will be an open bottom type with the hardware cloth on the bottom. They are going to be free ranging during the day and I will close the coop at night.

They were supposedly born last late November. One, possibly two is laying. Everyday when I go out to the coop there is an egg on the floor of the coop. I have straw in the nest boxes and put the plastic easter eggs(filled with stones) in each box. Last night 5 of the girls went up to roost in our roof rafters which is what we wanted and planned on the others are going in the nest boxes and pooping all over in them. Do I give them more time? I need some suggestions. I have not let them go outside yet to free range as we are keeping them in the coop for a little bit to adjust to us and the new environment-
Please help-

 

[gaitedgrl]

I am going to add some pictures to make things more clear and to show you my girls!

This is our coop- at this point we didn't have it shingled and we were one window short for trim.....also please disregard the mess and burn barrels....we took down an old shed and still have some of the mess!

Here is a picture of our nesting boxes-

And here are our new ladies-

 

[Laigaie]

If you just got them this past Saturday, they probably won't be feeling comfortable yet. That could prevent them from laying for a while, make their behavior a little weird, and certainly cause a bit of a mess. Give them a while before you start to worry about them not figuring things out. If you're concerned about sleeping in nest boxes, go out at night and move them up to the rafters. They may not be used to roosting from their old house. They'll get it after a few days, and as they get more used to the new digs, they'll go back to laying if they were laying before you got them.

 

[gaitedgrl]

Thank you. I don't believe all of them were laying before we got them....just starting. The guy had about 100 so he couldn't tell us "who" exactly was laying. Good idea and I will go out there and move them to the rafters....that isn't to high is it? Our white ones seem clumsy and almost seem to have a difficult time getting up even into the nest boxes. My husband was going to make a ladder of sort up to the nest boxes- the rafters are about 4 feet up- is that too high? What I have seen the others do is jump up to the nest boxes and then jump up to the rafters.

 

[patvetzal]

We just got (a month ago) six leghorns that came from a commercial set-up. Initially they also laid on the floor (and spent all night there as well). Now 5 of the six are laying in the nest box and they are all sleeping on the roost.
In their old home they spent all their time on the ground. Takes a while to change habits....Maybe soon they will even venture outside.

 

[gaitedgrl]

Tonight all except the buffs are up in the roosts. The buffs are hanging out in the nest boxes. So each night more are figuring out that the cross beams are where its at!