Poopy eggs and non-poopy eggs

[TurtlePowerTrav]

How come my neighbors eggs are always poopy on the shell? He has 26 hens of various ages from 7mo-7yrs. My pullets laying for almost 2 weeks now always have clean poop free eggs. Why is that. The only things we do differently is I have single bird nest boxes and he has a 3 foot long "communal" nest area. Also I put ACV in my birds water. Any clue as to the different outcomes?

 

[1muttsfan]

3 feet of communal laying space seems small for that many hens. Sometimes hens will start sleeping in the boxes at night - and pooping there too. What is the bedding like in his coop? Is it poop or mud - we are getting a lot of rain right now and my hens have very muddy feet, so the eggs have been dirty lately.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

3 feet of communal laying space seems small for that many hens. Sometimes hens will start sleeping in the boxes at night - and pooping there too. What is the bedding like in his coop? Is it poop or mud - we are getting a lot of rain right now and my hens have very muddy feet, so the eggs have been dirty lately.

He just recovered his coop. It stays dry inside. He uses straw. He has enough perches for all the birds. We "birdsit" when they go out of town and no one is sleeping in the nest area unless he has a broody. It is covered and on opposite side from perches. I was possibly thinking it may be they are older and have looser vent areas maybe. He has one or two hens in and out laying all day long. There is almost always a hen doing the egg song over there.

 

[donrae]

I have a nest box that is just dirty most of the time. The eggs there are almost always soiled. I tried moving the box but the hens continued to lay in the same spot just on the ground. That did NOT help at all, so I put the box back. I have no idea why. My current birds are mostly this years or last spring's layers, but I do have 3ish older layers.........I think the current oldest is 5?