My girls have been laying for 3 months or so using the 4 nest boxes. I collect eggs 3-5 times a day. Yesterday I found one egg on the floor. This morning I found two broken under the roost on the droppings board when I opened the coop in the morning. Then at 6pm I found two more eggs on the coop floor (the day's other 7 eggs were found in the nest boxes as usual. We found a hen pecking at one of the eggs on the coop floor. I don't want to have egg eaters...what's up? The only thing I've done differently in the past week or so is too delete the timer from turning on early in the morning, only leaving the light on in the late afternoon till I'm back from work. The chickens 7-8 months old.
They are laying when they are used to laying, but without light, they can't see to get to the nest box. Young hens don't hold it til they get there. I didn't go check the light this morning I waited until noon, the bulb had burnt out I found 12 eggs under the nest box......only 2 in the box. Changed the bulb, checked the timer & I figure tomorrow they should all be in the nestboxes....
Could it be that you have a new layer? This sounds like inexperienced layer behavior, and I suspect it'll straighten itself out. You may have had one or more that are just getting going, especially if you have more than one breed. The picking at the egg will happen, but if not allowed to consume broken eggs, they won't latch on to the idea.
