Hide n Seek with the eggs? What is up with that?

[chickchickchiky]

I have had mine on lockdown to where they have no choice but to lay in the boxes now lol i put fake eggs in there so they know where to put them and so far it's working. I figure i will keep them in a few days till it's engrained on where to lay then turn them out again. Hopefully they will remember to go to the nest boxes but i will now know how many eggs i get per day.

 

[Pullet Surprise]

I have two hens laying right now. More to come on line soon, which should make it even more interesting. Both hens laying now have very different "styles" in their laying. It takes the one at least two hours on the nest, to the point I was wondering if I should put some little chicken magazines in there for her. And then the whole world hears about it afterwards. The Barnevelder zips in and gets it done in 30 minutes and is quiet about it afterwards. They both like the same nest out of three to choose from. That's o.k. until their laying schedules come real close together. I have watched the Barn. try to share the nest at the same time as the other hen...she didn't like it so ended up in a second nest. About the decoy eggs, the barn. still likes to have them in the nests, and honest she has a favorite colored egg. The only time she has layed outside the box, she did so right in the middle of the coop, heaven forbid, Hen #1 was on the favored nest at the time and the favorved decoy egg was not in the second choice nest. Nest #3 is directly opposite the pop door...and probably not a good idea in design, hind sight ..they do not use that nest at all.

 

[bug58]

I've found two eggs not in the laying box since they started laying, and those two were new layers., could tell by the size of the eggs.

The only thing I can think of as to why they weren't in the box is they didn't make in time, one was found outside the coop all together, while the other was found in the run right where they would go into the coop and laying boxes.

 

[DianaMallory]

Update, We had to redo the coop floor. We rearranged the inside of the coop and put sand on the floor and since then the hiding of the eggs has stopped! We are now up to 7 eggs a day! Thank god because I can't keep up with the demand for them! I gave my brother and sister in law their first dozen and there was one really small one in there. She has a day care center and she said that she is not going to eat that one she is going to blow the egg out of the shell. And I thought I was silly for taking pictures of their first egg!