segregated egg laying

[Mrs. K]

This is a true story. I had my younger chicks roosting in the nests, so I dropped a cloth across them one late afternoon. And then I forgot it. Found two green eggs on the floor in a little homemade nest.

I have green egg layers, and brown egg layers. I got in the swing of the curtain, getting down there in the morning, and lifting it. Sure enough green eggs back in the nest box. But now we are going on two days without brown eggs. It happens...

So today, is the fourth day, had my granddaughters with me, no brown eggs, just green eggs. They have hidden a nest on me, with some hunting we found it, 12 eggs, all brown, how funny is that. For months they have laid together in the nests.

Mrs K

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

My EE are bolder than some of my other breeds, so maybe yours are too, and they weren't freaked out by the curtain as much.

 

[bobbi-j]

Interesting! Now are you going to try to retrain those brown egg layers, or just collect from the nest now that you know where it is?

 

[Mrs. K]

well, I did leave it, haha

 

[bobbi-j]

As long as they're not too hard to reach, I will sometimes leave a "hidden" nest, too. It's just easier than trying to retrain them sometimes.

 

[Pork Pie]

I use plastic basins as nest boxes - that way, if a hen decides that a hitherto ignored part of the coop is a good nest site, I simply put a basin in that spot. Preferences do seem to change every now and again.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Hens lay eggs in order to perpetuate the species, not so you or I can make homemade mayonnaise. Therefor they will chose the best, and safest places in which to lay.