phew, concern over, now what?

[chase]

I have a 9(ish) month old amber star pullet who had been laying 4-6 eggs a week through-out winter, then two weeks ago she lays a soft egg - then nothing, not one! she wasnt moulting, not broody, so as you can imagine i was starting to worry she had something was wrong with her. but she was acting/eating normally so i left her.

"little princess" <--my sons fault!

anyway, today as i let them out there coop i noticed a egg all on its own in the coner of the garden.

so i moved the paving slab that had been left there and found all of these!!!

woohoo shes perfectly healthy after all.

now what do i do?
im assuming that if i remove the slab and expose her little hidy hole, she'll stop laying there, but then what? will she go back to the nest or find somwhere else to stash her eggs?
the only thing thats changed in her circumstances is that i put two 16 week old warrens with them around the time her eggs started going missing. they keep sleeping in the nest box, mainly to get away from her as shes made it quite clear where they stand socially, shes definatly queen bee! but my leghorn doesnt have a problem and still lays her eggs in there.

if they were your eggs, would you still eat them or keep them for the chickens?
how do i break her habit and how do i encourage the newbies to sleep on the roost?

 

[chicks4kids]

Well, if you don't want her to go broody, definitely remove that slab.

I suggest removing the newbies from the nest boxeseverytime you see them sleeping in there and placing them on the roosts. I had a roo that thought he was going to sleep in the nestboxes when I first got him too. It took about a week of going out after dark and removing him from the box and placing him on the roost--sometimes 2 or 3 times a night-he was very persistent. So that should work.

As far as your egg hider goes, can you just create a temporary enclosure around the coop or around the pop hatch door that only allows for nesting in the coop with a little ranging space. Keeping her near the boxes rather than giving her the option of finding other places to lay might be neccessary at this point...unless she's planning a nest for broodiness...I have an EE that stashes her eggs in an upright tractor tire and once her clutch gets big enough, she sets. I ended up fencing in about an acre to keep her from doing that, and it took a couple weeks, but she lays in the nest box now.

Good luck!