Why are my chickens laying here?

[St3v3n31922]

hello so i’m having a little problem with my chickens, the first 3 months they were laying in the nesting box no problem! But now they lay under the coop and our coop they go down a ladder and it’s like a living room for them, to take dust baths and stuff and it’s alittle dark down there because of no sunlight, but we’ve been noticing 8 of our 10 chickens are going down there and laying there eggs, and we have on really bad problem we have one chicken that’s a cochin and that isolates herself and lays on her eggs, how do i stop this from happening?

 

[sourland]

Can you fence off the bottom of your coop ? Their intent is to keep you from getting the eggs so that they can go broody.

 

[DuckWhisperer06]

Can you fence off the bottom of your coop ? Their intent is to keep you from getting the eggs so that they can go broody.

Yes, find some way to block them from getting in there.

 

[MountainWoman73]

Once you block their preferred spot, make sure you're offering a better alternative. It sounds like they're preferring dark and secluded spaces so maybe add curtains to a couple of nest boxes by nailing up an old piece of fabric. You could advertise the new space by putting an egg or a golf ball in there. Also, I've found my hens just get into habits with their preferred nest space and if there's any disruption they'll switch their favorite place. So if your coop is big enough, just shutting them inside for a day or two might fix it.

 

[aart]

Pics of your nests, please?

 

[St3v3n31922]

Can you fence off the bottom of your coop ? Their intent is to keep you from getting the eggs so that they can go broody.

the way we build the coop we can’t block it off because if we do the chickens wouldn’t be able to go outside and play

 

[St3v3n31922]

Pics of your nests, please?

i would indeed do that today

 

[aart]

i would indeed do that today

Great!
...and the whole coop too ...to see space underneath.