Working out the egg-laying kinks?

[SemiSweet2391]

Five of my seven pullets are laying eggs! It is so exciting and fun. But there have been some questionable egg laying tactics.

One pullet makes a little nest in the corner of the coop and has laid her first two brown with white speckles eggs there! It’s the only place my camera can’t see so I’m assuming it’s one of my RIRs (3 RIR, 3 EE and 1 White Polish). She’s not laying in the nesting boxes yet.

One of my EE has a hilarious technique. She will sit in the nesting box and get ready to lay, then when she thinks she’s done she jumps down and out of the box. It’s this jump that jostles the egg free, and it lands in the coop bedding!

I’m assuming these are just first time egg laying quirks that will improve over time. Is that true?

There are 2 nesting boxes for 7 birds; one nest has a fake egg. Picture of my girls’ eggs because they are so lovely!

 

[nuthatched]

Your ee likely is getting the eggs stuck to her fluff and jumping shakes it off. That's the cause of most of my run eggs.

 

[SemiSweet2391]

Your ee likely is getting the eggs stuck to her fluff and jumping shakes it off. That's the cause of most of my run eggs.

There always is a bit of fluff stuck to the eggs! Haha it’s so funny to watch it on the camera

 

[rosemarythyme]

Agreed about the egg being stuck to fluff, my fluffiest hen (which also produced a lot of bloom) took a while to realize she had to stay in the nest for the egg to drop off.

For the other one, personally I'd fill in or block the nest location she made, as I want them to lay in nest boxes. Longer they get in the habit of laying somewhere, the harder it can be to break. Make sure you have fakes in the nest box to make them look like safe locations.

 

[Cheekychook12]

Your ee likely is getting the eggs stuck to her fluff and jumping shakes it off. That's the cause of most of my run eggs.

That happened to one of my hens too, she was just waddling around with an egg behind her
I had to go in and untangle it

 

[Daisy June]

Five of my seven pullets are laying eggs! It is so exciting and fun. But there have been some questionable egg laying tactics.

One pullet makes a little nest in the corner of the coop and has laid her first two brown with white speckles eggs there! It’s the only place my camera can’t see so I’m assuming it’s one of my RIRs (3 RIR, 3 EE and 1 White Polish). She’s not laying in the nesting boxes yet.

One of my EE has a hilarious technique. She will sit in the nesting box and get ready to lay, then when she thinks she’s done she jumps down and out of the box. It’s this jump that jostles the egg free, and it lands in the coop bedding!

I’m assuming these are just first time egg laying quirks that will improve over time. Is that true?

There are 2 nesting boxes for 7 birds; one nest has a fake egg. Picture of my girls’ eggs because they are so lovely!

Beautiful eggs! That is so funny about the EE's technique. I have two older (6 yo) and four (10 mo) girls. When the youngs ones lay eggs, the older ones come running down the ramp singing the egg song. It reminds me of my siblings (there are seven of us) just waiting for someone to do something that needed to be reported to our parents.

 

[SemiSweet2391]

Agreed about the egg being stuck to fluff, my fluffiest hen (which also produced a lot of bloom) took a while to realize she had to stay in the nest for the egg to drop off.

For the other one, personally I'd fill in or block the nest location she made, as I want them to lay in nest boxes. Longer they get in the habit of laying somewhere, the harder it can be to break. Make sure you have fakes in the nest box to make them look like safe locations.

Ok, thanks for the advice! Will do.

 

[SemiSweet2391]

Agreed about the egg being stuck to fluff, my fluffiest hen (which also produced a lot of bloom) took a while to realize she had to stay in the nest for the egg to drop off.

For the other one, personally I'd fill in or block the nest location she made, as I want them to lay in nest boxes. Longer they get in the habit of laying somewhere, the harder it can be to break. Make sure you have fakes in the nest box to make them look like safe locations.

I caught her wandering the coop after she couldn’t lay in her area. I put her in the nesting box with a fake egg and she laid there! Thanks for your advice. Hoping she gets the memo from now on!