Not laying in boxes??

[BarefootMom]

Yesterday I had two hens lay their eggs in the middle of the yard in different places. One was in the backyard and one was in the front yard. Very strange behavior. We have 4 boxes right now and they will usually only use 2 of them-sometimes only 1. Yesterday it was really hot and I wonder if it was just too hot to lay in the coop. It was 103 degrees with a very high heat index. This week I have been letting them roam around the yard so they can get more shade and hang out in the garden. I don't know what to expect today on the egg laying. We have a very big yard and I really don't to have to go look for eggs 3-4 times a day! Has anyone else ever had this happen?

 

[adbayer]

do you have fake eggs or golfballs in their nesting boxes??? thats all i know to suggest. it has been super hot here too, (105, heat index was 137 for my husband at work...) my girls, i keep finding them in the nesting boxes, just hanging out. its so flipping hot!!!!!

 

[sprawli]

My nest boxes are shaded by the overhang I built on my coop. My girls seem to like to hang out in there in the heat of the day. I have had a couple of golf balls in each nest since I built the boxes and my girls always seemed curious as to what they were. Now that they have recently started laying, they are pretty good about going into the nest boxes. I have found a couple that have fallen just outside the boxes though. I think a couple of them are still figuring out how things work...

Sounds like the heat where both of you are is pretty hard on your chickens. We've had a lot of rain and t-storms lately and my girls have loved it!

 

[bluie]

My chickens used the same nest box faithfully until the BO went broody. The others were afraid of her so they all found other places. One in the hostas, one under a stone table, one uses a corner of the coop, and two of them will come into the house and lay if we are home to let them in at the right time.

 

[Mervin]

My lay in a cozy little corner of the coop, right next to the nest box.

 

[Coach B]

Mine were occasionally laying in various places in the yard or garden. I now leave them in their pen til later in the day and that seems to have stopped it for the most part.