one chicken lays her egg on the floor everyday

[susanschickies]

hello, i have six chickens and five of the hens lay their eggs in their nesting box, but one chicken lays her egg on the floor of the coop every day and often times pecks it apart. it makes a big mess and smell. is their anything i can do?

 

[EmilyJoan]

I've heard that if you put a golf ball where she lays if she pecked at it she'll get a noggin full and stop. We had one laying on the ground for a bit but I messed up her nest she made and now she's laying in the boxes. We have had a golf ball in all of the boxes from the get go just in case and none have pecked their eggs. Good luck.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

She's probably the least dominant hen of the bunch and getting pushed out of the nest box and frustrated.

You definitely want to break this habit as one egg eater can teach the rest of them to do it too.

I agree with the golf balls. You also might need another nesting box if you have only 1 for the six birds. That may be why she is getting pushed out and frustrated.

Also, you might consider looking at the feed. She may need more calcium, especially if she is getting ousted at the feed dish from the others.

Lastly, it may be she just has bad genetics. Hopefully that isn't it. If you can't break her you may have to consider culling her before the habit spreads.

Lady of McCamley

 

[SirBroderick]

I am getting 6 eggs everyday from 9 chooks.
I have a nest box with 3 compartments but they only use 2 compartments and one always lays her egg on the floor.
Watchoo suggest?

 

[Wyvern]

Watching this thread closely as I have a very similar problem .
2 Barred Rocks and 2 RI Reds . 3 lay in the nest and all is good . The biggest girl and I think the leader insists on lay in at night or in the coop .
Layer food, freerange all day, freechoice oyster shell . ACV / garlic water feed at least monthly, meal worms on a regular basis (I have a farm ).straw, herbs, golfball even curtains on all the boxes (4 of them)
Eggs look ok (maybe a bit thin shelled) .
yesterday morning I could see she was ready to lay and she was still on the night roost. . she did find a corner of the coop and was setting up shop.
I gently picked her up and put her in the nest ... DID NOT like that at all .

I am fairly confident she is healthy .. just a bad habit .
Was thinking of closing off the nest (as I can access the back and locking her in ... but that just may make it even worse .
I even tried handing a snack through the nest box as I saw her close to laying last week . ... usually she is first for snack time . but wasnt going for the trick.

 

[Tuhmu]

hello, i have six chickens and five of the hens lay their eggs in their nesting box, but one chicken lays her egg on the floor of the coop every day and often times pecks it apart. it makes a big mess and smell. is their anything i can do?

How many nest boxes do you have for your chickens? If you have just the one, it could be that she is one of the less dominant hens and isn't getting a turn in the nest box.

 

[SirBroderick]

I haven't caught the suspect out in the act yet!!
I have wondered if "...there's always one" was how i need to look at it?
The eggs are good size with no question about the quality of shell.
If "she" is determined to lay on the floor, can i stop it anyway?

 

[Tuhmu]

I haven't caught the suspect out in the act yet!!
I have wondered if "...there's always one" was how i need to look at it?
The eggs are good size with no question about the quality of shell.
If "she" is determined to lay on the floor, can i stop it anyway?

Do you have golf balls or fake eggs in all the nests?

 

[SirBroderick]

No.
Would this be a good oidea?

 

[Tuhmu]

It might help, I have 2-3 golf balls in about half of my nests and those are ALWAYS the nests that get eggs, never one without. Although this may also have an increased effect that your hens will go broody. I personally like this since its an excuse to get more fuzzbutts.

I did have a polish that I recently sold who layed in the nests some days but would lay under them on others, but I think that's just because she's a polish and their a little quirky

lol. She's also the one that would get lost and one time ended up a 1/4 mile away from my house to my neighbors. (two days later)