What do do about this.

[unbaked pegga]

I have 5 hens, I got them as day old chicks the first of April 2020. The sexlink started laying first and she has been laying everyday for a couple of months now. . Only recently did the others start laying. They would carry on something awful and I would find an egg in the run, under the coop and in the yard but yesterday when I went in to clean the coop, under the roosts there were 2 broken eggs one on top of the other. One was a shellless egg the other not. One of them just started laying so that must be where the hen just began laying a couple of days ago. So I cleaned the coop. Then this morning when I went in the coop there were 2 broken eggs, again under the roosts both broken one on top of the other no shellless egg this time. It didn't seem like either one of the eggs had been eaten, the yolks and whites were both there. It almost looks like they laid the eggs while they were roosting. Has any one heard of that? I don't know how to stop that unless I just put a bunch of straw under the roosts but even then one egg could break on the other one. There are 5 nest boxes in the coop so that shouldn't be an issue. Any suggestions?

 

[Yardfulla poopers]

Mine laid from the roost quite a bit when they were first starting (mine are about the same age as yours) but now it only happens about 1 egg a month.

 

[DobieLover]

It's very common for newly laying pullets to drop eggs off the roost at night. They don't really know what's going on yet.
You don't need all those nest boxes. The rule of thumb is 1 box for every 4-5 hens. I have 5 boxes for 27 layers. Oftentimes I find all the eggs in one or two boxes. If your boxes are taking up any floor space I'd remove at least 3 of them.
Keeping a container filled with oyster shell on the side is always a good insurance policy to help meet the calcium requirements of active layers.

 

[mowin]

Do you have a poop board under your roosts? My poop board is only 6" lower then the roost. Most eggs that are dropped at night, are fine.

 

[unbaked pegga]

It's very common for newly laying pullets to drop eggs off the roost at night. They don't really know what's going on yet.
You don't need all those nest boxes. The rule of thumb is 1 box for every 4-5 hens. I have 5 boxes for 27 layers. Oftentimes I find all the eggs in one or two boxes. If your boxes are taking up any floor space I'd remove at least 3 of them.
Keeping a container filled with oyster shell on the side is always a good insurance policy to help meet the calcium requirements of active layers.

I know I thought it was too many nest boxes as well and they are quite small !! That is the way the coop was delivered. I will look inside there tomorrow and see how I can remove panels. I keep grit and oyster shell in the attached run and keep the cups full. Thank you for the insight. That eases my mind!