Need help with my Free Range Chickens- Where are my Eggs?

[omelette'smom]

Quote:
I have a covered litter box that i got a a yard sale! Some of my chickens prefer this over the nest boxes! It's so funny to hear them fighting over who's turn it is. My roo goes halfway in to cheer them on. Other times he sits in there for privacy and takes a nap!

 

[Uppity Peon]

Today all my eggs were in approved places. One in the little nestbox on the coop and 2 in the doghouse-on-a-picnic-table. This is just my second 3 egg day.

 

[suzannaski]

Hi
I have a "missing" eggs too. I keep my two (28 week old, post-molting, americaunas) girls in a coop at night, freerange during the day, and since they won't sit in the nest boxes but on top instead, I've covered the top with hay and shavings to see if that will work. That top area isn't much bigger that the nest boxes. So far, no luck. I've tried cooping them all day in an empty horse stall to see if they would pop one out, but no dice. I've set up the old brooder which was a dog crate under the stairs of the barn, with lots o' hay, because I see them sitting on the floor or on the hay over there a lot. Still no eggs. They like to chill in the sawdust and hay of the stalls, and sunbathe in the doorways. I'd always thought that's where the eggs would be.
Because we're up north, I've also started putting a light in the coop at night to make sure they get 12 hrs of light, but do I need the lightbulb to be a grow light? Or can it be any bulb?
Yesterday I followed them over the manure pile to see if there were eggs in the bushes. I didn't see any evidence of a nest.
Today, I'm going to follow them. I'm hoping the nor'easter will keep them in the barn. Here it is 8:15 in the morning and it's barely light out, thanks to the stupid new daylight savings time rule, and the heavy cloud cover. We'll be lucky to have it this light out at 5 tonight, so there's not much time for egg laying and finding.
Thanks for any advice.

 

[007Dawn]

Chances are that if they are not laying under the tree, which is most likely to open, they are laying under shurbs, behind fixtures, under stuff in the yard. Example: My new sink is sitting outside and up against a tree during our remolding of our kitchen and my one hen laid behind it.

You can build some "boxes" that they can get into to lay if you are wanting a place for them. Go to homedepot or Lowes (usually the lowes is more friendly in cutting for customers like you and me) and ask for some un tretated wood that is at least a foot wide. Then have them cut the wood into even sections as many as possible. Take three and nail togheter and place one on top. Put some hay or some type of bedding for warmth inside and just leave it there. They will go into it. You can most likely find scrape wood for free on craigslist if needed, just ask.

Then you can cut the wood yourself with a hand saw or likewise. Use some out door paint to paint the outside of the unit, it helps to protect the wood a bit. You can find free paint on craigslist or your city dump.

Good luck!

(If you live anywhere near Lakeland, FL I have some wood for you!)

 

[suzannaski]

I'm not sure if you were replying to me or to the other poster, but I have nesting boxes, they just won't use them. Maybe I should just leave them in the coop all day today so that they have no choice but to lay eggs in the coop.
If they do that, will they still go hide their eggs when I let them out of the coop?
I'd like to see even just ONE egg, once!
ps- Not near FL at all

It snowed all day yesterday

 

[emvickrey]

Before we got the run up we let ours out everyday to roam. But I made sure they paid their rent before I let them out. They all used to like one particular nest except for 1. She wanted privacy so I gave her a small dog crate. Now they share her box too. She lays in her box and occasionally i'll find a green egg from Spike in there too.

 

[silkeysandra]

my hens lay in the mornings in the dog house that's in their morning pen. In the afternoon, I let them out for play in the backyard. They have access to their night 'apartments'--old rabbit cages for each hen--where they go in to lay. Sometimes I find an egg in their 'apartment' in the mornings when I let them out to eat in their morning pen. The morning pen is an enclosed and topped 20 x 20' pen. Evening quarters with the apartments inside is our former rabbit house/store room. It stays open during the day for the hens to go in, but is closed at night when they get layer mash and fresh water. Their separate apartments are also closed for the night.
This summer we did have problems with the hens (we have new ones) laying in the ferns by the house, behind the compost pile, etc. We left the hens in the morning pen while we went on a short vacation. This seemed to get them laying in the dog house and so far, we have not found any out of place laying spots. They are sneaky tho! ha!

 

[suzannaski]

Thanks for the advice. Yesterday, I didn't let them out until 11am, but no eggs. Today, I only opened the pop door (I usually open the roof door too) thinking that maybe they wanted more privacy. I also added a silly puddy egg in there, for inspiration. Fifi, the smart hen, found her way out through the pop door, but Babs, not quite as adventerous, was still upstairs on the roost, looking at the plastic egg, when I headed back to work around 10ish this morning. I'm trying to hurry up & finish my work so I can go check on them

 

[007Dawn]

Quote:
You know I'm not sure if they will still hide their eggs. One of mine is so obvious when she lays and because they are up in the "crawl" space of a shed we can see them. I don't think she realizes that though. But since we really on free range they lay primarily in certain spots but recently we did discover they were laying in the woods as well and we have no idea how long the eggs have been back there so ..... I would say anything is possible.

Sorry I couldn't help more!