Please help, broken eggs, not laying in nest box

[new world]

Any suggestions/advice please. I have 3 australorps who are all laying well at the moment BUT one is laying her eggs from the perch and not in the nest box. It has happened 3 days in a row and two had smashed. I have now lifted up their poop tray a bit higher by putting it on top of a box and put some shredded newspaper in it to soften the fall and I was lucky enough to save the egg from being broken this morning. I have two (what I hope are good sized nest boxes) and they seem to only use one box anyway. I don't tend to let them out before about 7.30am because I live in suburbia and I try to keep their egg songs a bit muffled so as not to wake up my neighbours tooooo early.

A photo of my nest boxes are in my page if that helps.

Thank you.

 

[TroutsChicks]

Try using a staple gun and a piece of old cloth over the front and cut a couple long "flaps" to give privacy. I have my 3 boxes covered. So far only had one egg in the middle of the floor. I think it was a night time accident. I am also doing the deep liter method so it didn't break.

 

[Manningjw]

Out of our 5 chickens that are now laying the only one to give us trouble was our Black Australorp. She would lay all over the coop for the first few eggs but ever since we put porcelain eggs into the nests we haven't had a single hen lay outside of the nesting boxes. They also use all of the nesting boxes and not just the popular one like they were before.

 

[new world]

Thanks folks. Unfortunately I can't do the deep litter method. I have thought about making the nests more private so I will give that one a go and I did have fake eggs in the nests but once they started laying I took them out but I might just have to put them back in. All suggestions are very welcome and definitely taken on board by this newbie to chickens.

 

[wyododge]

Quote:
We had the exact same problem with the same birds. I would take her off the roost and put her in the open nest box and block it so she can't get out. Leave her there until you are sure she has laid or is not going to lay that day (until noon or 1 in the afternoon). I turned a corner in the barn and literally scared an egg out of one of ours and that is where she started to lay (dirt floor, no nest, next to a wall). She may have just had one pop out while on the roost and now equates the roost with laying. Do this for a couple or three eggs. Then, leave them in the coop till they have all laid so she doesn't look for somewhere else to lay. Unfortunately your bird seems to not have as strong a nesting instinct so you will have to help her along. She will lay in the nest box though, I almost guarantee it. She just needs to be taught that the nest box is where she is supposed to. Truth be told, she will probably do it eventually anyway, but there is no reason to have to clean up that mess every day. All of our astro's now lay in the nest boxes, they stay in there forever too.