Chickens hoarding eggs?

[IRo]

Last weekend I cleaned out the coop and as Summerthyme suggested I filled the coop with leaves. The chickesn did a great job of stomping them down, but now instead of using their nesting boxes to lay in they are laying in the leaves!!! We thought they had slowed production way down since the days have gotten shorter but yesterday I turned the bedding and found a "nest" of 9 eggs in a corner covered over with leaves and pine shavings. No hen was sitting on this clutch of eggs. We have no idea how long these eggs were there since dh refuses to go rooting through the leaves to collect the eggs and I had not been out there for a few days.

Do you think one of the hens has gone broody? Are they just finding it more convenient to stop and drop?? Do I take the leaves out??

<scratching my head> Ideas anyone?

[SheWoff]

I have the same problem. I went out a couple of days ago and raked a ton of leave/pine needles into the pen. Yesterday I went out to shoo the one off of the roost (whole nother story. :roll:) and heard a crunch when I took a step. Ooops. Brown egg. Squished! Ugh! So I looked around and found three other eggs in the leaves, covered up in the corner away from the nest boxes and away from their favorite scratching area. So are they just stupid or what? they were laying in the next boxes until I put all those leaves in there.

She

[Summerthyme]

I have that happen for the first week or two after putting the deep bedding in. I think it's just SO nice and "comfy" in that deep bed of leaves that they like them for a nest. But also, I've noticed that some hens have trouble flying up off the deep bedding until it packs down a bit... it's too "springy" and they don't get enough solid footing to push off... which means if your nest boxes are up higher, it's more work than they want to put into it, when there's that nice, dry, deep bedding to nest in! LOL!

The eggs are probably fine to eat... one advantage to doing the whole deep bedding thing in the cooler fall weather. They mostly will choose one or two places to lay (of course, there is always a hen or two who has to be different- I had one laying UNDER my hanging feeder, although I have no idea why- or how! The feeder is only about 2" off the bedding, so she would have to burrow under it to get there. She did, for weeks. Sigh...). Watch those spots, and dig around a bit for the eggs.

Also, try putting some leaves in the nest boxes for bedding.

In my experience (about 15 years of this "yearly deep bedding system now), once the novelty wears off a bit, and the leaves pack down, they go back to using the nest boxes.

Summerthyme

[IRo]

Thanks Summerthyme. I knew you would have the answer :mrgreen:

[goatlady]

I have never had boxes fior my girls cause they always lay in the same 2 corners in the coop which is fine with me. Boxes are just another thing to clean out as far as I'm concerned. I'm pretty sure the whole laying box idea started with folks used to have many, many hens in small areas, and used very little if any bedding in the coops. The boxes helped keep the eggs clean of poop and mess.