Laying eggs at night on roost?

[lhousesoccer]

My chickens don't even start thinking about laying until the afternoon. Almost never in the morning. They've always done this. However, in the last month or so, I'm finding eggs on the coop floor in the morning, or on the poop board (usually cracked). Why in the world are they dropping eggs on the roost at night?

 

[Fred's Hens]

As daylight is decreasing, they're off their schedule a bit? They appear to me to be having a hard time adjusting to autumn and we've already lost 3 hours+ daylight and we're only half way to the darkest days of the year.

If they are otherwise healthy, here is what I would try. Just a little thing. Take it or leave it, but it will harm nothing.

Put a timer driven light on in the coop. Have it come in am at the same time, year 'round. Say, 5 am. This somehow regulates the birds, to be awakened at the same time each day. Let the light go off at 9 am, if you wish. This method allows for their "evenings" to lengthen and shorten naturally with the seasons, and they'll go to roost earlier in the winter and much later in the summer, but their "wake up" will always be a constant. Worth a try.

 

[lhousesoccer]

Way ahead of you

. I've had a timer on to extend the daylight hours since it started getting darker earlier. About 3 weeks now. I think they're just lazy and don't want to go into one of the 8 beautiful, hay-lined nest boxes I have for them

.

I'm not impressed, finding poop-covered eggs in the morning, and having to throw most of them out because they're cracked ....