No eggs

[Rain Dance]

I have a 4'x8' coop 4' tall, artificial light inside for 12 hours a day with 10 chickens. 5 sex links are 6 months old and 5 isa browns are a little over a year. Feed them layers mix 2 lbs a day. Let them free roam 5 to 8 hours a day. 3 nesting boxes 10'x14' run. No eggs! What am I doing wrong? Here are some pictures of inside of coop.

 

[chickenlittle21]

Look around your yard to see if you can find their eggs. Especially make sure to look under bushes.

 

[Rachael4444]

Hey @Rain Dance, I agree with the above! We thought our hens weren’t laying, until we found a pit of about fifty frozen eggs in the woods. If you can find and block their makeshift nest outside, we’ve had a lot of success with decoy eggs. We put one in each nest box and they immediately switched to laying in the coop. Hope that helps!

 

[aart]

How long have you had these birds?
Have they ever laid in the nests?

Oh, and... Welcome to BYC! @Rain Dance
Where in this world are you located?
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, and then it's always there!

 

[DougVC]

Another option is just keep them locked up in the run instead of free ranging them, then you have a much smaller area to check for eggs if they want to lay outside the nest boxes.

I agree with the previous post of using decoy eggs. We have just used golf balls and those workjust fine as well.

 

[kubotafoot]

Yes, to all of the above. I was disturbed when my hens seemed to stop laying. It came out of nowhere. Days went by. I fermented food for them, started sprouting grains for them and even added electrolytes to their water. Nothing! I finally said, "This is crazy!" I knew no animals could be getting into the barn and stealing their eggs, so I spent almost a full day pretending to be tending to business while I spied on them, and sure enough, every now and then a hen would meander off to an area of the yard I seldom go to, and come back. Some went to the front of the barn where I stored my snowblower and back, so I waited until dusk when the roo called them all in, and then went to those areas. A 23 egg nest under the river birch tree in pachysandra ground cover and 27 under the snowblower! Never figured why they decided to choose a new spot, but I broke up the nests and sprayed their chosen area with peppermint oil spray to "encourage" them to stop using it. I did not have any fake eggs, wooden or glass, so I took some golf balls and but 2 in each nesting box. They went right back to their usual laying and was I ever happy. Made one heck of an omlet (after testing the eggs) many days. Perhaps your girls just need an incentive as to where to lay. It usually comes ingrained, but putting fake eggs into the nesting boxes will encourage them as to where to lay.....but do look for eggs around the yard, as their habits need to be broken. One hen not laying? That I could understand, but a whole flock? Nope. Has to be a secret nest (or more). Good luck. Your set up looks great to me, and the opening is closed overnight, yes?