My Araucana is a lunatic (not laying in the nest box)

[JayDee]

I mean, I love her and all, but when I see her running back and forth in the run, and then waddling close to the ground, pecking at the other hens and then leaving a tiny blue egg in the run bedding, I just have to shake my head.

Today was her third egg. Every time she's going to lay, she goes nuts for a few minutes. She always goes inside the coop but then decides again laying there, even though we have real and fake eggs in the nest boxes.

We have 3 nest boxes for 4 laying hens. The only one of the five not laying is our other Araucana.

Any ideas?

And here's her lovely little egg (along with our hybrid girl and 2 welsummers' eggs)

 

[Judy]

It often takes them about a month to get the whole egg laying thing right. You could try putting her in the nest box when she does her act if you're right there, or just wait and hope she gets the right idea in time. Good luck.

 

[JayDee]

Oh ok! That's good to know. I was wondering if she was just a bit slow. All our other hens were laying when we got them, so this is the first "new" girl we've ever had to deal with. And she is a lunatic.

 

[cashdl]

She will figure it out. Maybe pic her and her egg up and put them both in the nest box as soon as she lays it.

I have an Araucana hen that insists on flying the coop every day but then it comes time to lay an egg and she is in full panic mode because she cannot figure out how to get back in. I go pick her up put her in the pen. She gives me a grateful look and then promptly lays and egg in the nest box. Once done she stays in the coop till the next morning when she makes a jail break. I have since put her in a chicken tractor, much to her dismay.

Lanae

 

[wsdareme]

I still find an egg in the run about once a week. It's like one of the girls suddenly gets the urge, starts to make a dash for the coop, and, oops, doesn't make it. I also find eggs on the floor of the coop in front of the nest boxes, but I suspect somebody is kicking those out to make room for her own.

 

[JayDee]

lol cashdl -- we tried that the first time and it just seemed to freak her out! I'll give it a while maybe and see if she figures it out herself.

I'm rather worried once I'm back at work, they'll have her egg buried by the time we get home. We'll find them by stepping on them!

 

[ddzFunnyfarm]

Quote:
LOL We learned to tread lightly in the coop the first time we "found" an egg just inside the people door. What a surprise! DH kicked it, not hard enough to crack it, but enough to roll it through the shavings. Sure startled him! Thought he caught one of the girls in a fly by. Funny to see him jump like he did!

That was real early in their learning the ropes, but we still get a random one laid 'outside the box' now and then.


*****
Devoted wife to the most patient coop-n-run builder on Earth, mom to 4 and their spouses, g-ma to 3+1 on the way

....I'm graciously allowed by the FunnyFarm inmates to serve them: Ruby the Lab/Pit galoot who thinks she's a lapdog, Smalls the slinky black feline who thinks she's God's gift to Ruby, 13 new un-named chicks, 14 Jumbo CornishXs we're sending to Camp Freeze-em-up on April 1 (funny timing, eh?!!), Bruuuce the Ameraucana Roo who does not "get" that whole 'crow only at sun-up thing', our laying flock of 22 (Eenie, Meenie, Miney & Mo and The 3 Stooges the Ameraucanas, Cruella the WCBP and Balayage the GP, Lucy the RIR, Ethyl the NHR, Winnie & Dottie the BRs, Splash the SLW, Foghorn & Leghorn the WLs, Goldie & Starr the RSL & BSL, CC the Blk Minorca, JetBlue the Blue Andalusian, 'CBOF the Greedy' the Lt Brahma, and Abby-Normal the Red Frizzle Cochin Bantam who runs the place!)

 

[FlockMama]

I had a hen that wouldn't let my EE lay in the nest boxes. She would lay it in the corner of the run. When Big Momma passed away the EE started using the nest box!

 

[JayDee]

Oh that's interesting... I'll keep an eye out!