Pullet laying eggs from perch, at night! Cracked eggs in the morning! Help!

[Jbusch]

Since one of my pullets started laying, she's been laying from her perch. At night. In the morning, sometimes the egg is fine, sometimes its cracked, and sometimes its shattered! I have wooden eggs in the nesting boxes to try and show her where to lay, but it doesn't seem to be working. What should I do?

 

[the3quail]

I would remove the perch or put it closer to the ground.

 

[WaterWindStone]

Sometimes young layers that are still maturing do this, however I have found that hens that lay off the bar at night have some sort of laying issue that eventually becomes serious. I've had a few internal layers start like this, of course internal layers don't survive. The shell gland may not be working properly to put a hard shell on and sometimes eggs are rushed out before the shell has been properly formed.

All you can do is make sure your flock is on a good diet, and on layer feed, keep the treats to a dull roar, and offer oyster shell on the side. I have also used human Caltrate to help harden the shell, a half a pill crushed, once daily until the shells are thicker.

Good luck!

 

[aart]

Since one of my pullets started laying, she's been laying from her perch. At night. In the morning, sometimes the egg is fine, sometimes its cracked, and sometimes its shattered! I have wooden eggs in the nesting boxes to try and show her where to lay, but it doesn't seem to be working. What should I do?

Has she investigated the nests at all?
How long has she been laying?
Pics of nest might help here.
Are they other, older, layers in the coop?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Many pullets have full control of the egg laying process when they start. It is a pretty complicated process and includes putting the egg together correctly, knowing where to lay, and knowing when to lay. I'm kind of amazed that so many do get all of it right from the start.

It typically takes about 25 hours for an egg to go through a hen's internal egg making factory from release of the yolk until the egg is laid. There are different triggers that tell a hen when to release that yolk. When they are laying at night from the roost they haven't got those triggers working right yet. When mine are laying from the roost when they start laying they usually get that under control within a week or so. I don't know how long yours has been doing this but right now I suggest patience.

This has happened to me several times and with one exception they figured it out. With that one exception she just would not stop. It took me well more than a month to figure out which one was doing it. When I finally did I ate her. There was something wrong with her internal egg laying process. I'm not going to tell you that it always works out, it doesn't. But the vast majority of the time it does. I don't know of anything you can do other than wait.