Roosting and egg laying

[Khathaway09]

Hi, I have a RIR that keeps laying eggs at night or early in the morning from the roosting bar so when I go to let them out in the morning there is a broken egg on the ground. Why is she not using the boxes? I have 10 egg layers and 5 boxes in different locations since some prefer to be outside and some inside. Also, I have a hen that goes in the box at night when I put them to bed and in the morning there is an egg but I always thought they laid an egg before noon. Why are mine so off wack with laying?

 

[aart]

Are your birds all the same age?
What are their ages, in weeks or months?
Have you tried putting one fake egg in each nest?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have a RIR that keeps laying eggs at night or early in the morning from the roosting bar so when I go to let them out in the morning there is a broken egg on the ground. Why is she not using the boxes?

How long has she been laying? Most pullets have control of when they lay an egg when they first start but occasionally one doesn't. Has she just started laying or has she been laying for a while?

I have a hen that goes in the box at night when I put them to bed and in the morning there is an egg but I always thought they laid an egg before noon.

For various reasons most eggs are laid in the morning but "most" certainly doesn't mean all. Many hens lay some eggs in the morning some of the time but in the afternoon other times. I know you read that kind of stuff on here but it just isn't correct.

Why are mine so off wack with laying?

They may not be, especially if they are pullets just starting to lay. I don't know enough of their backstory to be able to say. If you can answer Aart's questions and mine we might see something.

Another question. I notice you are in Indiana (thanks for that info) so you are north of the equator. How dark is it getting in your coop at night? Do they get any really dark downtime? Are you providing lights or is there a security camera or street light that keeps the coop lit all night?

 

[Khathaway09]

Are your birds all the same age?
What are their ages, in weeks or months?
Have you tried putting one fake egg in each nest?

They are all the same age. Born end of June so they are new egg layers. I have kept fake eggs in the boxes. And real eggs stay in the box during the day until we get them out around 4pm during the week otherwise we collect them all day during the weekends.

 

[Khathaway09]

I have a RIR that keeps laying eggs at night or early in the morning from the roosting bar so when I go to let them out in the morning there is a broken egg on the ground. Why is she not using the boxes?

How long has she been laying? Most pullets have control of when they lay an egg when they first start but occasionally one doesn't. Has she just started laying or has she been laying for a while?

●She has been laying for about a month now and has laid in the box before. So maybe its a control thing.

I have a hen that goes in the box at night when I put them to bed and in the morning there is an egg but I always thought they laid an egg before noon.

For various reasons most eggs are laid in the morning but "most" certainly doesn't mean all. Many hens lay some eggs in the morning some of the time but in the afternoon other times. I know you read that kind of stuff on here but it just isn't correct.

● thank you.

Why are mine so off wack with laying?

They may not be, especially if they are pullets just starting to lay. I don't know enough of their backstory to be able to say. If you can answer Aart's questions and mine we might see something.

● they were born in June 2020. They free range during the day. I have 10 pullets, 1 rooster and 5 guineas.

Another question. I notice you are in Indiana (thanks for that info) so you are north of the equator. How dark is it getting in your coop at night? Do they get any really dark downtime? Are you providing lights or is there a security camera or street light that keeps the coop lit all night?

● yes, I'm in southern Indiana and no I do not supplement with any light at night. I let them out as soon as it get light so around 8am and they go in the coop at 545pm. We are in the country so no artificial lights and we don't supplement any, they do free range all day.

Answers are bullets above.

 

[Ridgerunner]

●She has been laying for about a month now and has laid in the box before. So maybe its a control thing.

After a month it should not be a control issue. I've had several pullets lay from the roost when they first start but practically all of them figure it out within a week. There are several triggers that tell a pullet or hen when to release a yolk to start the internal egg making process. It takes the egg around 25 hours or so from when the yolk is released until the egg is finished and can be laid. One of those triggers is light, the yolk should not be released too late to be laid during daylight the following day. When they first start to lay those triggers don't always work right, but usually within a week or at most two the pullet should get those bugs out of her system so she is only laying during daylight. That's why I was asking about lights, thinking lights at night might be messing with her triggers. Apparently not.

Another potential issue for pullets is that most seem to know when an egg is coming. They know it is coming so they find a nest to lay in. It may not be where you want them to lay, but it is where they want to lay. But some pullets just starting out seem to be surprised by those first few eggs. They drop it wherever they happen to be, the roosts or just walking around in the coop or run. This is something else they usually quickly outgrow. Since this one laid in the nest before I don't think this has anything to do with it. I think her triggers are just messed up so the egg is ready to be laid at the wrong time.

I had a pullet like this once. She started laying her egg from the roost and never stopped. After a month I started trying to figure out which one it was. It took about another month before I finally caught her still doing it. Since I had several other pullets to choose from when deciding which ones to keep I ate her, she failed an important test. The way I looked at it her triggers of when to release that yolk were so messed up that they were telling her to release the yolk at the wrong time. Otherwise at least some of her eggs would be laid during daylight hours.

I do not have any suggestions on how to retrain yours or otherwise correct the problem. I do consider it a problem. I'm OK with it for a week or so, just give her time to straighten out. Most of the time the eggs don't break when laid from my roost anyway. But if the eggs are breaking the other chickens may eat them, may will. To me that is not an issue unless one learns to open a good egg to eat it. I just don't want to take that chance.

I have a hen that goes in the box at night when I put them to bed and in the morning there is an egg but I always thought they laid an egg before noon.

This one I don't have much experience with. On really rare occasions I've seen a hen on a nest as it is getting dark to lay an egg but there is nothing regular about it. By rare I mean once every few years, nothing regular at all. I just put it down to something caused her to be a little late. As long as it is not regular I figure we are all entitled to an occasional oops. This sounds like it may be kind of regular. I don't want them sleeping in the nest because they can poop and leave a messy nest. Even if it is kind of regular but all she is leaving in there is an egg I would probably ignore it.

 

[Khathaway09]

After a month it should not be a control issue. I've had several pullets lay from the roost when they first start but practically all of them figure it out within a week. There are several triggers that tell a pullet or hen when to release a yolk to start the internal egg making process. It takes the egg around 25 hours or so from when the yolk is released until the egg is finished and can be laid. One of those triggers is light, the yolk should not be released too late to be laid during daylight the following day. When they first start to lay those triggers don't always work right, but usually within a week or at most two the pullet should get those bugs out of her system so she is only laying during daylight. That's why I was asking about lights, thinking lights at night might be messing with her triggers. Apparently not.

Another potential issue for pullets is that most seem to know when an egg is coming. They know it is coming so they find a nest to lay in. It may not be where you want them to lay, but it is where they want to lay. But some pullets just starting out seem to be surprised by those first few eggs. They drop it wherever they happen to be, the roosts or just walking around in the coop or run. This is something else they usually quickly outgrow. Since this one laid in the nest before I don't think this has anything to do with it. I think her triggers are just messed up so the egg is ready to be laid at the wrong time.

I had a pullet like this once. She started laying her egg from the roost and never stopped. After a month I started trying to figure out which one it was. It took about another month before I finally caught her still doing it. Since I had several other pullets to choose from when deciding which ones to keep I ate her, she failed an important test. The way I looked at it her triggers of when to release that yolk were so messed up that they were telling her to release the yolk at the wrong time. Otherwise at least some of her eggs would be laid during daylight hours.

I do not have any suggestions on how to retrain yours or otherwise correct the problem. I do consider it a problem. I'm OK with it for a week or so, just give her time to straighten out. Most of the time the eggs don't break when laid from my roost anyway. But if the eggs are breaking the other chickens may eat them, may will. To me that is not an issue unless one learns to open a good egg to eat it. I just don't want to take that chance.


This one I don't have much experience with. On really rare occasions I've seen a hen on a nest as it is getting dark to lay an egg but there is nothing regular about it. By rare I mean once every few years, nothing regular at all. I just put it down to something caused her to be a little late. As long as it is not regular I figure we are all entitled to an occasional oops. This sounds like it may be kind of regular. I don't want them sleeping in the nest because they can poop and leave a messy nest. Even if it is kind of regular but all she is leaving in there is an egg I would probably ignore it.

Thank you for your time and information.