Laying eggs from their perch at night?

[undergroundchickens]

As soon as it gets light enough outside my girls jump down off their perch and run out the door into their run. I went out this morning just as they were exiting the coop. I opened the door to do the daily morning poop scoop so the floor is clean when they come back in to lay and found two eggs splat on the floor under the perch. One egg is from my EE that has been laying a little more than a week and a rubber/shell-less egg (not sure from whom but possibly my barred rock that has been laying for two weeks). Why would they be laying eggs from the perch at night? Is this normal? All my girls are laying now and they all have laid all the eggs in the nest box.

What is going on?

 

[dee88]

That is weird, it seems like whoever's laying the eggs on the perch would get the message seeing the eggs in the nest box. Is your nest box within full eye's view of all of your chickens?

 

[christa7032]

I get the same thing sometimes and my girls have been laying for a while. Every once in a while I see an egg broken in the poop pile under the perch and once I even found an egg doing an impossible balancing act on the perch itself! I don't know why they do this, but for the most part they will lay in the boxes.

 

[undergroundchickens]

The nest boxes are about two feet away from the perch and in plain view. My Coop is only 5x4 feet with the nesting boxes taking up the whole wall on one side. My only thought is that they laid in the dark or when it wasn't quite light enough for them to decide they could start moving around? Weird. They were both splat right next to if not on top of each other. Maybe from the same bird?

 

[elmo]

Couldn't be from the same bird unless you haven't been in the coop for two days. It takes about 26 hours for an egg to form and move through the hen's reproductive tract to be laid, so each day she lays a little later until she's laying at the end of the day, then she usually skips a day and lays in the morning of the next day. Sometimes she gets caught short and the egg comes out while she's roosting.

It happens.

 

[tiapet]

I have had the same issue recently. But the eggs are always in the same place on the poop board every morning. They have also been very soft. All my girls get the same food + oyster shell. Pretty sure it's the same bird due to it always being in the same place. I have no idea what is going on

 

[krista74]

I have had three eggs lately that were laid under the roost. The first was an egg with a thin ribbon of papery shell - ie: not intact when laid.

The second was completely shell-less. An egg in a membrane which was holding it all together.

The third one was this morning, and although the egg looked fully formed, the bird in question had pecked a tiny hole in the shell. I cracked this one open to investigate and the shell was extremely thin and fragile, despite fully covering the egg.

So in all instances, the eggs were not quite right. And they were all laid by the same bird - one that has only been laying a month or so.

I am putting it down to inexperience It takes time to get the egg factory running right!

Normally, when this bird lays good solid eggs she will lay them in the nest box. Only when something's not quite right will she lay under the roost. And she's the only one who does it.

I doubt it's anything to worry about, but it's frustrating to lose valuable eggs.

Krista

 

[tiapet]

This is exactly what has been happening with mine. The only difference is that my girls have been laying for about a year. Like I mentioned, they all get the same food + oyster shell. Not a clue what's up.

 

[MoreHens]

I have a Buff Orpington that has always laid softshelled eggs, sometimes shell-less eggs. She frequently lays them at night from the roost. I figure she's got a weak shell gland, since they get layer ration and free choice oyster shell. None of the others do this.

Maybe you have something similar?

 

[jessica wedda14]

The exact thing identical to what you said with the rubber shell and laying in the middle of the night totally identical mine just started laying too,