How to raise Backyard Chickens: Re: [CHICKENS-101] Where have all the eggs gone?

Friday, December 3, 2010

Re: [CHICKENS-101] Where have all the eggs gone?

I have one that will always lay her egg on the floor. I know just where to find it too. :o) I don't like them laying in the poop though...not fun! If I put a few golf balls in the nesting boxes they will go in them. Some of my roos like to roost next to the boxes at night and poop all in them...not nice. These roos have to go. :o(

Are your hens in moult? They will definitely stop laying for awhile when molting. I have 28 hens right now and get about 4 eggs per day. No light out there and no covered run. I just kinda go without as many eggs all winter.

On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 11:13 AM, Rita <ritabohn2001@yahoo.com> wrote:

Yes I know it's winter and yes the girls have a light in their coop and yes it's heated to about 35 or 40 degrees and yes they have a covered run so they can go outside with out being in the snow. So where are the eggs -- for about 2 weeks now we only get 3 or 4 (we have 9 hens) We have one hen that lays an egg while on the roost a couple times a week -- thats been going on for a long time (we have a poo catcher under the roost and we find it in there). A couple of days ago it was nice so we cleaned out the coop, put in a fresh bale of straw and now we are finding eggs on the floor -- no we did not put fresh straw in the laying boxes -- in fact we put the whole bale in and they get to dig it apart -- which they seem to enjoy.

So what is going on and how do I stop them from laying, the eggs they are laying, on the floor of the coop??

Thanks in advance -- really thanks

Rita