Pullet just squats and lays wherever she is

[Nikkumz]

Ive never had this problem but ive heard of stuff like this before. Possibly your nest boxes are TOO big?? A standard sized hen only needs a like 12 by 18 inch nest box. They wont lay in them if they dont feel comfortable, ya know.

I know i wouldnt wanna just squat and push a baby anywhere LOL

 

[klmclain1]

Fred's Hens :

Quote:
Why not?

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

 

[hoping4better]

Fred's Hens :

If you have 10 hens? give or take? and you're serious about solving this, then you might consider committing a morning to "charting" the hens. I take my coffee and a clipboard and head out to the coop early in the morning. Note, the boxes are empty, OK, we're good to go. One by one they head into the boxes. When they leave, I assign a description of the egg and the hen who laid it. After an hour, they've mostly all laid. I can even separate them into a divided pen, layers into one, not yet laid, into the other.

Narrows it down. Eventually, I have charted them all and know who does what and when.

Another method is lipstick butts. Different shades of lipstick on the bums of each hen. The eggs get streaked with different color at lay. A chart is then constructed. Different ways to chart your hens. Gotta do something.

Different shades . . . that's one way to get easter eggers

I have just started to get eggs and I don't know if one was just lazy or what but one laid an egg right next to the feeder. So far though 5/6 made it to the nest.

I may try the lipstick trick if I find any more outside of the nest. Thanks for the idea.​

 

[RedReiner]

Quote:
Oh Thank You! I needed a good laugh and your reminder cracked me up! so great idea! I will go lipstick some butts in the morning and see if I can catch who it is. they all stay in the run whoever it is just plops one down in the run or coop. I try to keep them all in until I have all the eggs. nest boxes were built custom for these girls, they are very large english opringtons.
dont get the white powdery appearance but not eating the shell so I guess they are good...silly girls... Look out I got some lipstick! your in for it now!

I just hope she learns to use the box or I can figure out why she wont use it.

 

[jenesis536]

Hilarious! It's the new "red"... Chicken Butt Red. My husband would all about have a heart attack if he saw me sticking a tube of lipstick around a chicken butt. It will probably work though!!!

 

[RedReiner]

Quote:
I hope my neighbors are not watching lol

 

[easteregger96]

I have heard that if you put plastic easter eggs or golf balls in the nest boxes they will lay in the nestbox thinking that someone else has laid an egg in it. They seem easy to be trained by example. I tried it with plastic eggs and have no problem getting them to lay in the nestboxes. Matter of fact, sometimes when I go out to collect eggs, there will be several real eggs around the plastic egg. That might work for you. I know it solved my problem.

 

[JAHVREM]

food coloring in vent will identify who for a couple of days.
mine don't get to go out and play til after lunch. that way most of their work is done.

 

[RedReiner]

Quote:
yeah I have golf balls, which the broodies try to hatch sometimes. there are eggs in the box from the other girls. hec even the free ranging serama will find a box or hole to lay an egg in. for a while it was an open bag of shavings.
I still dont know why the egg is rough and powdery looking?

 

[easteregger96]

I have never had that problem, sorry