Why did my chicken lay an egg in my run???

[ColetasticChickens]

Yesterday I had an egg in my run and I got confused. I thought to myself they have bedding.. So why did it lay there? Any ideas why?

 

[Tillie43]

I have found eggs in the run, on the floor of their coop and in the grass outside their run. Wherever they are when the mood hits. Is this her first egg? Hard to say.

 

[Nardo]

Have you a nesting area that they have laid eggs in? Sometimes the newer layers just don't quite get where to go. You may put a golf ball or fake egg where you'd like them to lay. Or sometimes they don't really know their own 'time to lay' signals at first and get caught out and just lay. Or sometimes a higher ranking hen won't share nesting room and they are desperate to lay and go wherever.

 

[Quailobsessed]

Sometimes chickens don't make sense. I had a chicken that would only lay in long grass and weeds. When we removed all the grass and put it in the bin, she laid her egg in the bin. Their thought process doesn't always make any sense.

 

[TheChiggens]

Maybe it just did not have much instinct or was not comfortable about laying it in the house. Was it in a hidden spot? And do you have nestboxes?

 

[ColetasticChickens]

I have found eggs in the run, on the floor of their coop and in the grass outside their run. Wherever they are when the mood hits. Is this her first egg? Hard to say.

No

 

[ColetasticChickens]

Maybe it just did not have much instinct or was not comfortable about laying it in the house. Was it in a hidden spot? And do you have nestboxes?

Yes

 

[Chickassan]

It probably just happened.
They get busy or distracted and just pop one out.
Someone may have rolled it out of your nesting area as well, you just never know with chickens they're weirdos.

 

[ColetasticChickens]

It probably just happened.
They get busy or distracted and just pop one out.
Someone may have rolled it out of your nesting area as well, you just never know with chickens they're weirdos.

Oh ok that never happened before

 

[Oz chic]

4 of 5 of mine started laying out in the run, after being kicked out of the nest boxes.

To start with they had two nest boxes, all was merry for about 6 weeks, and they shared very well, until one day it all changed and one hen was hogging both nest boxes and wouldn’t let anyone else in.

Long story short, they now have 4 nest boxes for 5 hens and harmony has been restored and no more eggs in the run.