Laying eggs from the roost

[KGreene]

So my RSL's have been laying for about a month or so. They have always laid in the nesting boxes. Now for the past two days, one of them has been laying an egg from the roost...!!?? I have a 3 inch layer of sand under the roosts, so the eggs aren't being broken, but it seems odd that they would go from the nesting box to the roost to lay.

I have golf balls in the boxes, as well as other eggs since the BR's are typically the first go lay each day.

Any suggestions to remedy this?

Thanks

 

[chicmom]

I was just wondering how many chickens you have and how many nesting boxes you have...Maybe the low hen on the pecking order isn't getting to use the favorite box? Could you add another box? I have 14 hens, and five nesting boxes. For a while, they would only use two of the boxes, one being the favorite. Sometime they would crowd together in the favorite box. Kinda silly, with four other empty boxes! LOL

 

[KGreene]

I currently have 4 hens that are laying (the other four are only 10 weeks... and are in a separate pen). There are 4 nesting boxes in their coop, so plenty of options. And, she typically used a box that the others didn't. The two BR's use one box and the two RSL's used two of the others. Maybe if I go out at day break and make the roost inaccessible until all laying is done would encourage her to use the boxes again??? Any thoughts on that?

Many Thanks

 

[KGreene]

So, I've figured out why the one RSL is laying from the roost .... She's laying during the night time or very early morning hours. I went to the coop at 6:00 a.m. (still dark and birds still on the roost).... The egg had already been laid and, it wasn't there an hour after they went to roost last night.

I didn't think chickens layer at night ??

 

[ThePRfan]

Their probably going under and laying eggs.