Wierd Laying Behavior

[amscrib]

Question Folks:

I have a small backyard flock of 10. They free range during the afternoon (after work) but otherwise are confined to a fenced in/roofed run with a wooden coop inside of it. Oddly, all of my hens prefer to roost on top of the coop rather than on the roosting poles inside the coop. They are safe in the run so I haven't worried about it.

2 hens (a Red Star and EE) have been laying for about a month - consistently ~5/week each. They both lay exclusively in the same laying box every day for the last month until last Friday.

My Red Star suddenly started laying at night while she's roosting which means that the egg rolls down the roof and plops onto the coop floor and breaks. This makes me very sad

Why does she do this? Should I move her into the coop in the evening and shut the door? Should I leave her alone and let her work it out?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

She should work it out. Pullets often have strange laying behavior.

I have a 2 year old hen that just started laying from the roost a few days ago. Sometimes there's no explaining it. They're individuals not machines.

Put a hammock under the eave to catch the rollers

 

[BunkyB]

Laying eggs is approximately a 28 hour cycle. If the hen who normally lays in a nesting box then from her roost may be just a bit out of sync with the daylight hours and feels the urge to lay then at dark according to her schedule. She should snap out of this soon enough. Keep an eye on her anyway and make sure you get those broken eggs out of thre area she drops them.... Steve