Laying eggs in the bushes

[Debo's Chickens]

Well, it seems that just yesterday, my chickens (2 out of the 3 anyway) decided they want to lay in my raspberry bushes rather than the coop nest box.

They had been reliably laying in the coop for a few months now.

I did some searching before posting this, and I see that some people have had their chickens decide to lay elsewhere when they didn't like their eggs taken everyday. So I am going to try leaving an egg in the coop & see if that helps.

The other thing I'm wondering is if they would decide to lay outside if their coop is too hot. We've had a spell of unseasonably hot weather here & my coop is small, so maybe it heats up too much. Maybe I need to add more ventilation?

I really don't want to keep them locked in the coop until they lay everyday, as they often don't lay until mid-afternoon. Their coop & run is just too small to leave them in that much. I'd rather just go get the eggs from the raspberry bushes.

If I thin out the raspberry bushes, so they're not so dense, do you think they'd just find another spot, or go back to the coop to lay? If I try to herd them out of the raspberry bushes when it looks like they're wanting to lay in there, would that help?

Any suggestions much welcomed.

 

[Debo's Chickens]

new development . . . I just went to check if there was another egg under the bushes, and the one chicken who laid her egg in the coop yesterday, was laying under the bushes. grr.

 

[ozark hen]

The best answer to your problem is locking them up in the coop for several days. Can you hang a box fan from their ceiling to help cool things down in the daytime? Have you tried putting some "fake" eggs in their nests in the coop?

 

[Uppity Peon]

Maybe if you go to a lot of trouble and set up a nice nest box in the bushes she will go back to laying in the coop again.

 

[TXmom]

That is exactly what I'm afraid of... My girls should start laying any day now...every day I go walk around and make sure there are no eggs laying around. They haven't started laying yet, but I have no idea where they will lay at first, before they learn that the nest box is the right place. I have a patch of blackberry vines and I saw a "clearing" in them, like maybe the chickens are going in there to get out of the sun. I checked in there and don't see any eggs yet. I really hope

that mine will lay where they're supposed to, but I have my doubts.

 

[TXmom]

Quote:

That's probably about right...

 

[Debo's Chickens]

Quote:
This sounds like the best idea!!!

We'll see what happens. The next egg they lay, I will put into the coop nest & see what happens tomorrow. They were perfectly content to lay in the coop until yesterday. I'll also look into adding some additional ventilation; can't hurt.

 

[Adychicks]

My girls started the same thing a few days ago only I didn't realize it. I had been getting 5-7 eggs a day and then a few days ago I only got 4 eggs for 2 days then 2 eggs for the next 2 days. No one was acting sick so I was more confused then concerned. Then I discovered 9 eggs in the flower bed. I am going to try leaving a few eggs in the coop to try and remind them where they should be leaving their eggs. I will let you know if this does any good. If I am on the wrong track I hope someone will redirect me s I can redirect the girls.

 

[Lila_Brambleburr]

We have had this problem on occasion, but as most of our girlies are morning layers, we just leave them in the coop until noon. When we first got our last batch of 6 hens to add to the 8 that we had, the next day we left them all out and there were eggs in all sorts of weird places! Keeping them in the coop solved that problem, for the most part. We discovered that my dog, Mini, is a great egg retriever! She found an egg and brought it to my husband, and dropped it at his feet! He had her pick it up again, and bring it to the house, so that he could see how gentle she would be with it, and she held it so lightly that at one point it rolled back in her mouth and he heard it hit her back teeth! But it remained intact! Awesome!

Our banty RIW started laying in the shavings under the table saw in the garage. We allowed her to build a stash and now she's sitting on them! We also have two chickens who insist on laying in a box of spare hay we keep in our porch.

Hope you manage to work this one out!

 

[ozark hen]

wonderful story about Mini...what kind is she?