Jewels Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 Hi, Can anyone tell me why my chooks are laying their eggs outside and not in their coop? Over last weekend we thought we had no eggs, however my husband whilst working in garden found four eggs down the side of our house behind the compost bin, they were really well hidden amongest twigs and pine cones and we had to move alot of stuff to get to them. They were fresh as we did the "egg freshness test" in water. I have limited their free ranging for the last couple of days and now only had one egg since. Georgina rushed over to the compost bin area when let out and laid her egg there again. my OH said we should block that area off now, but I think this would just encourage them to find a new nesting area and we would be hunting for that then. Is this normal for hens? Should we discourage it? Or leave them to it? Thanks for any help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esta Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 Well funny you should mention that as mine do it now and they know where to lay It is natural for them to do that they just need time and then they will finally realise that it is ok to lay in the nest boxes hope i helped please pm me if you need any other help Esta x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jewels Posted February 19, 2009 Author Share Posted February 19, 2009 Thanks esta I have had them since last August and they had been laying in their best box all the time before last weekend, do you think maybe they feel insecure in laying their eggs in there now for some reason? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splodge88 Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 One of ours lays outside if allowed so generally we keep them in during the morning until she's laid. She seems to have gotten used to not being able to lay outside and instead lays in the nest box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 I would block off their alternative nests and confine them to the run for a few days to break the habit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griffin Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 Eliza has never used the nest box. She started laying about three weeks ago and I only found out when I started putting two and two together. She'd been acting odd, I kept finding her in the dogs garden instead of the chooks garden, and then one morning I caught one of my dogs, Ella, eating an egg out there. I'd noticed that everytime Ella went out the to garden she rushed over to this particular bush but thought nothing of it. Then my OH said he'd seen Eliza coming out from there and it all suddenly dawned on me. Lo and behold I found five eggs deep in the depths on this overgrown ivy covered bush I was even more surprised because I thought Eliza was a White Star but these eggs were brown so it means I've got an imposter There is nothing I can do to stop her. The chooks have the run of their part of the garden all day and the sensible ones go back in their coop to lay in the nest boxes so I can't shut her in because that means shutting them in their coop all morning. This would lead to riots! I'm just resigned to the fact that Ella the dog gets to eat an egg daily because it's such hard work actually reaching the eggs from the undergrowth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
