Laying eggs I can't get to

[mimsky]

We have our girls in a chicken tractor and let them roam the yard all day. Here's my problem. Our house (people house, not chicken house) is raised and my girls are just starting to lay. They are going up under the house during the day then later I'll find the eggs they laid under there out in the yard, where the dogs have helped themselves. How can I convince them to lay in the nesting boxes inside their tractor coop and not under the house where I DO NOT want to crawl looking for them? The house is over 4,000 square feet, so it's not feasible to try to close it all off.

 

[sourland]

If they were mine, I would lock them in the tractor until they started using the nest boxes. As long as they have access to underneath the house, they will continue to lay there.

 

[mimsky]

I was wondering whether they usually lay in the a.m. I work at home, so could just let them out in the afternoon, after they have laid. Or I was wondering whether I should build a box that looks just like their nesting box, fill it with the nesting material and put it under the house (but in a spot I can reach) for them to lay there. I really do love having them meander around my yard all day and hate to keep them locked up, if I don't have to.

 

[aart]

Leave them locked up in the coop for a few weeks, check for eggs several times a day and you'll get an idea of when they.....then you can gauge when to let out them to range and/or they will know to go into their house to lay.