Hens often lay eggs outside of the nesting boxes.
What To Do About Hens Laying Outside of the Nesting Box?
Lillie and Crooked Tail Tess are famous for creative laying habits. One may choose to lay in the front right side of the coop. The other may select a place under the walk-up by the coop door. It drives me nuts too, but I try to just work through it. It takes time to break the habit and I realize this. As you well know, if you move a hen’s nesting box over 1 foot, it upsets her whole day. She may not lay eggs in that box again or she may choose not to even lay an egg on that day at all. Hens have a mind of their own and as my daughter, Kristie would say, “they do what they want!”.
Today was a free range day on the farm. All day long I did things in the yard giving them time to free range while I was close by. Never do I allow free ranging when I am not nearby for their safe keeping. Today was one of those days and everyone in the barnyard was happy from cats and dogs to chickens and roosters! I was happy too.
Being a free range day, I was well aware some hens would not lay in boxes today. In order to better have a chance at getting eggs laid in the proper places though, I left all of the doors to the runs open, had fresh hay in each nesting box and filled all watering containers with cool, fresh water (as usual!). With all that set up for the girls, 4 hens chose a place outside of the run and in the barnyard area under a table. My best guess is that once an egg could be seen by others, it became the “hot spot” and each chose to lay there. No matter tomorrow as they will all be back in their runs and familiarity will set presidence.
Here are some thoughts and tips regarding hens, nesting boxes and egg laying:
1. Free range days may cause chickens to lay eggs outside of their usual boxes. They get busy living off the land and find themselves laying an egg nearby out of convenience.
2. Once one hen lays an egg in a certain spot, usually others follow and it becomes a place for egg laying.
3. So often, hens like the same nesting box even though all 4 look the same. The warmth of the nest, the already laid egg beneath them and often dominance-building are just a few reasons hens use the same box. I’ve seen Lillie squawk at Olive for close to an hour waiting for her to move out of the way while 3 empty boxes await her.
4. Once hens begin laying eggs in a certain spot, it take perseverance and consideration to change a hen’s mind. Removing the eggs and disrupting the nest may work. Placing a bucket or large item over the area may force a move. Adding new hay or straw to the preferred nesting boxes may bring about change. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
5. Too much sun, too little breeze or some other discomfort may force a chicken to choose another spot other than your desired area for egg laying. Dirty hay or straw, no hay or straw or the suggestion of another hen’s laying habits may have some pull. Filling nesting boxes with fresh hay every day or two does make a difference and even though they often scratch a good amount of hay out of the box, fresh hay excites a hen and happy hens lay eggs daily.
Pay careful attention if a hen is not using the spot you’ve chosen for her because when “they do what they want”, you find yourself crawling inside a coop to get eggs. Sometimes that’s quite a tight fit!
Love With Chickens Everybody!
