I have a Welsummer, approximately 9 months old, who just started laying a six weeks or so ago. I get about 3-4 eggs from her a week and for the last week, eggs haven't been in the nest boxes. The first time, i saw it on the coop floor over by the pop door and then, i saw one out in the run, covered with gunk and poop. not sure how long it had been there, so i tossed it. then, yesterday, there was a nice clean egg out in the run.......not sure why she all of a sudden is doing this? there are scratches on it, like it has been rolled around. I have 12 laying hens with 4 nest boxes, i am thinking that is a decent ratio. Two of those are the preferred and the other two boxes "will do in a pinch" if they have to use them. Is there is any way to break this behavior?
One thing you can do is keep them locked in the coop/run until you believe the girls have taken care of their business. Also on the eggs outside of boxes, unless you suspect they have been there a month or so they should still be good. I leave my eggs on the counter and they remain good for 6+ weeks just sitting there at room temperature. You can also do the float test, if I recall correctly you stick an egg in water if it sinks its good. If it floats then it means bacteria has started to produce gases in the egg causing it to float.
