I have 11 hens that free range. I only have 1 easter egger and I haven't been seeing any colored eggs so I thought maybe she hadn't started to lay yet ..... however today I found that she has made a nest in the yard and has layed 8 eggs in it!! and to make it worse another hen who had been laying in the boxes also started laying next to her in the yard!! How do I get them to lay in the nest boxes??? All the other hens lay in the boxes so why won't these two?
Do you have enough nests, enough coop space? Might be the EE is low bird and is chased away from the nests? There might be no telling why this bird wants to lay where shes laying, but not unusual that others would start to lay there too. You can either gather the eggs from the yard nest..or you can 'train' your birds to lay in the coop nests. Free range birds sometimes need to be 'trained'(or re-trained) to lay in the coop nests, especially new layers. Leaving them locked in the coop for 2-3 days can help 'home' them to lay in the coop nests. They can be confined to coop 24/7 for a few days to a week, or confine them at least until mid to late afternoon. You help them create a new habit and they will usually stick with it.
Put a nest egg in at least one of your nest boxes. Where they see an "egg" they think it's a good place too.