Off to lay elsewhere

[WickedChicksNH]

So my little girl Luna is about a year old now.
I noticed she is climbing our backyard fence, (it just a little thigh high wire fence) but she climbs it like a ladder.
I am like what the heck is she doing over there, so I climb over myself, and she runs over to me and I pick her up and put her back in my yard
I am lucky and all my neighbors don't mind the chickens in their yards

So my boyfriend says, your little black chicken is laying her eggs in the neighbors yard. She had 3 eggs laid, she is laying them in a nice huge pile of old grass clippings. That is where my neighbors dump them they don't really use that part of the yard.

Weird thing is sometimes she lays in the coop and I guess sometimes she chooses not to.

However we took the eggs, I felt bad because she was looking all over for them, but we have an incubator.

Why do you think she would lay some eggs in the coops and others elsewhere?

My little lady, I call her my fluff butt

 

[aart]

There might be something making her uncomfortable with the coop nests.
Is your coop space and nest count good for the number of birds you have?
She may also be thinking about going broody so wants to hide her nest.

 

[WickedChicksNH]

We actually have 3 coops, I think it is because I keep moving them around. In the winter I switched them to the shed because one of the coops I bought for my two little ones was way too hard to get in there and clean in the winter, and my NH red had her big coop, but this winter the ground area flooded it out, though her nest was up high.

We are in the mist of making the back half of the shed into their own coop. so no more moving the poor things around

She is laying in 2 of the coops and in the neighbors yard.. we are incubating her eggs though

 

[aart]

I think it is because I keep moving them around

That could definitely be the problem.
Guessing if you have multiple coops,
none are large enough for the number of birds you have.

 

[WickedChicksNH]

I had one big coop my boyfriend built for my first 2 hens, then the next year I got 2 more chicks, I slowly introduced them to my big NH red, when I finally decided to permanently move them outside I didn't want to put them in with my big one in the coop because she was being a little bossy at first, so I got them their own coop which says fists 6 chicken, I find it really small though.

in the winter I moved them all in together to help with body heat, then the coops got bad with all the snow we got, muddy, frozen and it was hard to get into to clean, so then off to putting them in a big crate in the shed.

So I figure it was my fault. she hasn't laid back over there since we took the eggs from the neighbors yard. but she is laying all the time now.

thanks for your response

 

[aart]

Yeah, they don't like change much, but can adjust-you just have to put up with the ramifications until they do.