Out of the 7 hens in my flock only Runt and Pebbles are laying so far. For a bit over a week now I have only been finding one egg in the coop a day, from Runt. Well I let the girls out of the coop late today and I saw Pebbles run the other direction from the flock. I saw her go underneath the overturned pond and had a feeling of what she was doing. After she came out I went to check, maybe there would be an egg or 2. There was 10! So my question is are they ok for eating? Its been about 40-50 out. And will she continue laying there? Thanks for reading.
As long as she hasn't been sitting on them (other than to lay a new one every day)- which it doesn't sound like she has- they are still fine to eat. She most likely will continue laying in her secret spot, but if you take all the eggs there is a chance she could switch. It's hard to know. You could try locking her in the coop till she lays for a few days to try "retraining" her. That worked for me when my hen was sneaking off to lay in the neighbor's yard.
They should be fine - crack them individually in a bowl before using. That way if one is bad, you can tell before you add it to the others.
Use the float method if you are really worried. When you want to use those eggs, put them in a nice deep bowl and fill it with water. Fresh eggs stay on the bottom, less fresh eggs will bobble a bit, and trash eggs float on the top.
Keep her locked in the coop for a few days to force her to lay in the nesting box and she will start laying there instead.
Thank you so much everyone. I went ahead and made ham omelets for dinner tonight and all the eggs where just fine. Im going to try and lock up Pebbles for a couple days and see what happens.Take care.
