Laying outside of the coop

[crystalsc]

I found my alpha hen laying in my tomato plant. The rascal has figured out she can jump the gate into the garden and get into the raised garden bed. They are two years old and they have never laid outside of their coop before. Any clues why she is now doing this? I have not found the others doing it yet but there aren’t any eggs in the coop yet today so I’m worried the others will copy her. There was a black snake in the coop earlier this week but we removed it and have had snakes in there before. I’m going to put some chicken wire down in the raised beds in hopes that deters her. Any other advice is appreciated!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Clean out the nests real good and put in fresh bedding. Mine would not lay in the nests where a black rat snake had been, I think they object to the smell of the snake - as do I, tbh.

Edited for typos, good grief!

 

[crystalsc]

Thank you!

 

[Lokahi]

Clean out the nests real good and put in fresh bedding. Mine would not lay in the nests where a black rat snake had been, I think they object to the smell of the snake - as do I, tbh.

Edited for typos, good grief!

Ok I got two out of 6 that doesn't want to use the nesting box...one will lay one on the ground (under the nest boxes above) and the other where they roost for the night. We had to remove the roost bar during the day because 4 days in a row she just dropped her egg while on the roost bar. I'm pretty anal about keeping their coop clean and nesting boxes...free of feathers and poop.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Ok I got two out of 6 that doesn't want to use the nesting box...one will lay one on the ground (under the nest boxes above) and the other where they roost for the night.

Are these new layers? You can try manually putting them in the nest box if you catch them going to their preferred spot to lay, though timing can be tough.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Do you keep golf balls or fake eggs in the nests to assure them the nests are safe to lay heir eggs in?