New chicken help please!

[mccoytj]

I have just added a couple of RIRs to my flock. Each morning when I go let them out of their house, there is a broken egg on the floor below the roosting bars. I have seen both of the new chickens in the nest boxes during the day, but someone isn't using them to lay her egg. What should I do? Thanks.

 

[Whittni]

You could put a poop-catch under the chickens' roost and put shavings in it so the egg doesn't brake.

 

[mccoytj]

thank you, I'll do it

 

[Spikes Chooks]

Mine did this a little at the start, so I put shavings underneath so they generally didn't break. I also put dummy eggs in the nesting boxes; do you have these, so she knows where to go? Also consider if you have enough nesting boxes. I think it should be about 1 nest for 3-4 chickens. However, they can sometimes all queue for the favourite box and ignore other ones. Maybe, as a newbie, she can't get to the head of the queue? Unlikely, as she is doing it off the roost, I suspect she is taken a bit unawares and may just be unsure of the proper place in her new home.

All the best