This is the first time i have bought hens/pullets already laying, usually I get chicks or young pullets. I brought 6 Golden Comet pullets home yesterday and out them in their temporary coop and yard. The coop is 4 x 8 and about 4 feet high set up another 3 feet on legs with a rabbit wire floor. The fenced in yard is 14 x 14 (maybe a bit bigger as it is not totally square.) There are next boxes in the coop which for now are milk crates stuffed with hay. At their old home they didn't have nest boxes, they just laid eggs on the floor, ground or in a long wire cage hung on the barn wall. There had to have been at least 100 same age birds in that pen, all pullets with 1 roo.
The girls have been laying for about a month. I brought them home and got them settled in the coop with fresh water, food and nest boxes. By evening there was an egg.
This morning there was another intact egg on the coop floor. I later got another one but I also found one in the water that they had pecked apart and eaten. From the sounds of things, they have done that to at least another egg or 2.
Are they doing this because they are in new surroundings? Will they stop? Suggestions? I will be building them a new coop before winter with a bigger yard, but right now I am on a wicked budget and have to make due with what I have.
The girls have been laying for about a month. I brought them home and got them settled in the coop with fresh water, food and nest boxes. By evening there was an egg.
This morning there was another intact egg on the coop floor. I later got another one but I also found one in the water that they had pecked apart and eaten. From the sounds of things, they have done that to at least another egg or 2.
Are they doing this because they are in new surroundings? Will they stop? Suggestions? I will be building them a new coop before winter with a bigger yard, but right now I am on a wicked budget and have to make due with what I have.
