The funniest thing just happened...

[MaggieRae]

I finally solved the mystery of the egg in the run!!!

So this pullet, of almost 36 weeks, is the main character is the story I'm about to type.

I was in the run after having filled their outside feeders, and was tying in the string that held the waterer a knot so that the waterer would be higher off the ground and (hopefully) not so quick to be filled with dirt and shavings(which I put in the run during the rainy season). All of a sudden, I notice Texas, one of my silver laced wyandottes standing really tall, fluffed up so that she looked like a silver laced soccer ball, going "Ba-gawk!". I recognized this stance immediately as the poop stance. So I sat there wondering, well, what's the hold up? She just stood there for a minute, all fluffed up and not making a peep after the initial Ba-gawk. Then, a big brown egg popped out and rolled a little away. Shaking out her feathers and coming down off her tiptoes, Texas walked away like this wasn't out of the ordinary. I grabbed up the egg as quick as I could so that it wouldn't get dirty.

So, I know she doesn't always lay in the run, about half the time she's in the coop... But man, what a surprise! I wonder if there's any way to remedy this...

 

[lauren6]

aww she is beautiful

I cant wait till mine start laying

 

[fordmommy]

Great story! I have witnessed almost every one of my girls "poop" their eggs out at least once. ( that's what my kids call it

)

 

[catdaddy66]

Acouple of things you might try: 1- place egg like objects in the nest to entice them to add to the total
2- move the nest lower to the ground
3- make sure the nesting material is clean!

Try and see if that helps. I have read these options on these threads before. Hope it helps, and good luck!!

 

[snowflake]

I'm jealous looks like you have sunshine, send some to Michigan will you? Please! I put a plastic egg in the nest box that seemed to help.

 

[nanawendy]

Wow... what a beautiful birdie. This might sound crazy, but... When one of my EE was laying out of the nesting area altogether, I walked each one up the ramp... sat them in a nest full of eggs had a little heart to heart and walked them back down. I had to do it to each EE because I didn't know which was "confused". It worked.
I did this @ the beginning of their laying and after their winter lay-off. It truly worked

 

[crazyhen]

Something probably disturbs her when she goes on the nest. Remember how children will hold it until they have to run because they are busy doing something else. LOL

Gloria Jean

 

[fldiver97]

She is beautiful and it looks as if she knows it....

I would do what the OP said, fake eggs (golfballs, wooden or ceramic eggs, my EE was happy with an egg shaped rock...). Clean shavings, easy access nestboxes and maybe a little soft music and moodlighting (just kidding on the last 2.....lol). Mine are usually good but I now just leave a couple of fake eggs in two of the nests. Good luck

 

[MaggieRae]

Quote:
They had/ still have(3) golf balls and there and the nest boxes fill with eggs pretty quickly. The nest boxes are built in, only an inch or two off the floor of the coop. I clean out the nest box shavings about every two weeks and the whole coop gets changed once a month.

I even put some curtains in there a couple of weeks ago to make things a bit more 'private'.

 

[suburbanminifarm]

It's like an episode of that show "I didn't know I was pregnant!"