Laying eggs in the yard

[Rudy Marmaro]

OK, so we have ten chickens in our little backyard coop. We have a fenced in little yard around the coop for them and to keep predators away.
We have five Rhode Island Reds, two Barre Rocks and three Buff Orpingtons. They just started laying eggs a couple weeks ago. (They started out real small, but are getting bigger). But lately we have been finding an egg in the yard, under the ramp to the coop. This is our first foray into the world of chickens.
So, my question is, how do you keep them from laying an egg in the yard, instead of the roosting box?

 

[jp57]

Mine free range all day and I am just starting to get eggs so I am no expert. The things I have been told to do are to keep them in the coop until about noon before letting them out. Also, fake eggs in the nesting box will give them a little direction on where to put them. So far I have had 2 eggs in the nesting boxes. I haven't found any in the yard.

 

[rIrs roost]

Are they roosting in the nesting box? If so you need a perch for them. If they sleep in the box they poop in it. They don't like to lay eggs in a dirty box.

 

[Rudy Marmaro]

Mine free range all day and I am just starting to get eggs so I am no expert. The things I have been told to do are to keep them in the coop until about noon before letting them out. Also, fake eggs in the nesting box will give them a little direction on where to put them. So far I have had 2 eggs in the nesting boxes. I haven't found any in the yard.

Yeah, we have fake eggs in the nesting boxes. and we have a totally enclosed area, so we don't lock them in the coop at night. They just go in on their own.
I am not sure locking them will work for us. But we do have the fake eggs in the box to show them where to lay, and we are finding eggs there. It's just almost every day we find one egg in the yard under the ramp going into the coop.

 

[aart]

Yeah, we have fake eggs in the nesting boxes. and we have a totally enclosed area, so we don't lock them in the coop at night. They just go in on their own.
I am not sure locking them will work for us. But we do have the fake eggs in the box to show them where to lay, and we are finding eggs there. It's just almost every day we find one egg in the yard under the ramp going into the coop.

Welcome to BYC!
It can take awhile, up to a month or so, for them to get the hang of laying and going to the nest before the egg pops out. Meanwhile, eggs everywhere, some of them can be rather funky looking, soft or thin shelled, huge double yolked eggs.

How big is coop, in feet by feet, and how many nests for your 10 pullets?
Pics would be great!

 

[Rudy Marmaro]

Welcome to BYC!
It can take awhile, up to a month or so, for them to get the hang of laying and going to the nest before the egg pops out. Meanwhile, eggs everywhere, some of them can be rather funky looking, soft or thin shelled, huge double yolked eggs.

How big is coop, in feet by feet, and how many nests for your 10 pullets?
Pics would be great!

Well, I will post some pics in a bit. We have ten chickens, but I am thinking four of them are roosters, which means we can't keep them. The city of Missoula allows you to have chickens but not roosters. So, I am thinking that we will be down to six in a bit. Once we hear crowing, out they go! But we built a coop out of pallets, filled the walls with straw, and put a window in it. The roost box is actually a kitchen cabinet we mounted on the side, so we can open the cabinet doors to get the eggs. We have a small enclosed yard and we raised the coop so they can go underneath it. So they have the coop, under the coop for shade and a small yard outside.