My Ladies are not laying in the nesting boxes

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RiverChick

RiverChick

Hatching
11 Years
Sep 11, 2008
2
0
7
Portland, OR
Hi Everyone,

I looked around a little for this topic but couldn't find anything (at least on the first three pages) that dealt with this specifically.

I'm a first time chicken owner and my ladies (don't know which one
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) laid her first egg...whoo hoo. SO SO exciting!!! But of course she didn't lay it in her nice little box, I found it among some grass in our yard.

The ladies are just about 6 months old. My question is this: how do I get them to lay in their nests and not on our property? I have a feeling that pretty soon our land is going to start smelling like rotten eggs! They pretty much have free range of our property but are shut up in their coop at night.

Sorry if this topic has already been addressed I just didn't know where else to go....

Any ideas would be helpful. I'm hoping that I don't have to lock them up in a small run, I would like to keep them free range...they love it so!

Thanks in advance!
 
Ya know, we are having the same problem too! We have 3 girls laying and all of them lay in the pine shavings in the corner of the coop, across from their nest boxes.

They will move the golf balls inside the boxes, but won't go in there to lay. At this point, dh is ready to take them out and see if they will lay where they used to be....

Hopefully someone will be able to help us out???

Good luck!
~Caran:)
 
Hello. I've got this problem as well. I have 8 chickens, who are truly 'free range' girls i guess you could say. They have an enclosed section of the yard with as natural as possible areas that I've created out of landscape where they can lay eggs. Two of the hens just started laying in August and on occassion return to the same spot...should I leave their eggs there to remind them to go back? Another 3 aren't laying yet (but are very busy watching all the excitement!). Now, I have 3 leg horns that I've adopted in who are a little more mature than my hand raised girls. They get into all kinds of trouble (hiding in the wysteria, climbing the lattice, etc.) and just seem to drop their eggs wherever they please and then within hours begin pecking at them, an idea which has now caught onto the rest of the flock! Help!
 
For the ones who are laying in the yard, can't you just keep them locked up for a few days until they form new habits?

Ours are also laying in a corner of the coop, in the shavings. We're going to just let them keep doing it until (we hope) it's firmly established, and then slip a nesting box into that location, with another stacked on top of it.
 
A couple of my gals started up about two weeks ago--and did an awesome job! Got into the nesting boxes and, Voila! Perfectly placed eggs. Now, I've noticed that as some of the others are beginning to lay, they are not quite as....focused.

There appears to be a couple of choice laying spots on the coop floor, so I'm planning the same strategy as ninjapoodles: I'll put nesting boxes in these locations this weekend. Hopefully, the slow learners will get the message. The good news: so far only one egg has been punctured; I've been able to gather all the others unscathed.
 
Yup, I would lock them up in the coop for a couple weeks. Leave a marked egg or two in the nest box all the time, collect the fresh ones, till they get the idea. When they are all laying in the boxes, then you can let them out to freerange and they should go back to the nest and lay when the time comes.
Been working for me.

Cory
 
when i discovered my hens first 3 eggs on the floor I put them in the nest box (i had to make because she was early) now, I put the box where she had laid and every other day I move it a little but closer to where I want it, maybe if you just put them in there it will help. Shes laid in there ever since. But I also suspect I have one that just started, Ive found 2 soft shell eggs the last couple days on the floor below where they roost.
 
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