why wont my chickens lay in one spot?

Question

My chickens keep laying eggs all over the yard rarely in the coop by the time i find them they are usually rotting how do i get them to lay in the coop?

Answer 1

"Most of the time chickens are kept in a small pen. You don’t want them laying eggs all over the ground. Therefore, when you build a chicken pen you make several nests for their egg laying. The chickens like privacy when laying eggs, so early every morning they seek out these little elevated boxes with the soft straw. With forethought, you have caused a good habit to develop and trained the chickens to lay its eggs in a certain place. But if you are careless you can untrain them.

Chickens generally lay their eggs early in the day, so you make sure during that time they are in their pen close to their nest. If a chicken that has been released onto the yard feels a need to lay an egg, they will return to the nest — as long as it is convenient.

However if you consistently release the chickens before they have laid all their eggs, and they stray too far from the nest, they will develop the habit of laying their eggs on the ground.

Once this practice becomes a habit, even when put back in their pen they will stop climbing up to the nest and will continue laying their eggs on the ground."

Make sure they have proper nests and be sure not to release the chickens too early in the day... Some suggest keeping them in their pens for a day or two (with feed and water) to help them learn the new habit of laying in their nest.

Answer 2

We had 200 chicken on our farm. Now I know that's a lot and you are only concerned about 1. However, being the one that was ordered to collect the eggs every day, Never did any of our hens lay eggs any where else than in their nest. We had coops that were cleaned everyday with clean hay. Each bird seem to know which nest was theirs. The chicken yard was penned in with chicken wire around 3 acres of land. That was their ground and still laid only in the nest. My dad use to keep the light on at night so the hens would lay. He use to say "They only lay during the day time and being so stupid, they need the light on." I don't know if that's true, but it worked, Like I said, I'm the one that collected those 200 eggs every stinking day.

Answer 3

Make sure there are several places in the coop for them to choose from. Sometimes, because of aggression, some hens might scare off others that would prefer a more peaceful spot. Also, you might consider placing a fake egg in each of the boxes because this encourages them to use the box.
Oftentimes, very young chickens do this but later they outgrow the bad habit.

Good luck!

Answer 4

Do you have nice boxes and hay in the coop for them to make nests with? Our chickens lay all over the place but have not started laying eggs yet, about another month they should.

Answer 5

Great answers, I want to add, keep the hens in the coop for a while until they learn to like their nest boxes. Plus always have at least one more nest box than hens.

Answer 6

Maybe they don't like the contruction of your coop. Hens prefer dark, enclosed places with lots of nesting material to lay their eggs in. The nesting material also needs to be clean. Many hens also don't like to "share" their nest boxes, so maybe adding extra "rooms" to their coop will make it more attractive to them.

Answer 7

keep them pen in the coop till about10 in the morning

Answer 8

Assuming they are hens I will bet they are laying where you do not see them. I'm sure there is a pile of eggs somewhere.

Answer 9

maybe they know you are planning on stealing them and are trying to hide them from you...

seriously now, my mums does the same. all you can do is search the whole yard every evening after you put them to bed.