Will she stop? Update!!!

[Dixiedoodle]

My 9 month old EE laid her first egg two days ago... First day she jumped into the nest box and scratched everything out of the nest box...turned around a few times and laid her egg...Yesterday, dh went to collect the eggs and she was in the nestbox BUT all four of the nestboxes were COMPLETELY empty and the eggs on the floor! None were broken, thank goodness. As she becomes 'more' mature will she stop this habit??? I have a 'lip' on each nest and none of the others have done anything like this...

 

[joedie]

I have a few the same age that laid on the floor while everyone else laid in the nesting boxes. It took a couple of months then suddenly they started laying in the boxes.

 

[jossanne]

No clue if she'll stop, but she sounds hilarious and maddening at the same time. If she doesn't stop, there are nestbox liners that are like a little piece of carpet or something that just lay in the bottom of the box. I bet she couldn't scratch those out if she tried!

Good luck!

 

[Chicks R Friends NOT Food]

Very sorry do do this because you sound frustrated but..

I agree that she should figure it out eventually, but there's not much to say when that would be.

 

[Thortherooster]

one of my sicilian buttercup ladies did that when she was bored, she did it for a couple of weeks, she does not do it anymore...!!

 

[FortWorthChicks]

silly hen!

 

[Dixiedoodle]

Silly hen is correct! She is a crazy girl--this morning while I was cleaning the coop... She was busy scratching all the shavings out of two of the nestboxes...Then she jumped into the nest box where Ruby (RIR) was sitting..... Put her head under Ruby and started to scratch... Let's just say Ruby was NOT impressed and let her know about it.. I removed her and put her into a nest I had refilled... I stayed for a few minutes hoping she would lay but she didn't so I left...Went back 30min...later to a beautiful aqua colored egg.... laying in the coop floor..

 

[easttxchick]

I also don't mean to laugh at your frustration, but...

.
I have a hen who when someone is in HER nest box(we have 10, but they only lay in 2) will get on the perch and lay and without fail, the egg will land in the overnight pile of poo(fun retrieving and cleaning that egg)!
Gotta love 'em.

 

[FisherMOM]

Chickens are so weird! lol.. I love them. But yes, this could get frustrating! hmm... maybe she wants a different bedding?

 

[Andi]

Oh, I feel your frustration! When my girls started laying this last September/October, the first one to lay (an EE) made a nest in the weeds and laid 7 in there before I could find her (thought she had wandered off) and the nest. I removed the eggs and she never laid in there again. Matter of fact, she started only laying on the ground in the run. Once the other girls started, they followed suit. I tried putting boxes in different spots and filling them with different stuff, but nothing worked. When we had our first big snow storm of the season I kept them locked up. They had no choice but to lay them in the coop. They were scattered on the floor. Most of the time after that they laid in the coop. It wasn't until about just before Christmas that all of a sudden, like flipping a switch, they all decided to lay in the box. I'm so happy. Now I'm actually getting clean eggs that I'm not embarrassed to share.

Patience. It'll happen. They just need time to figure it out in their own mind.