My chooks are finally laying, but not where I want them

[Bezzie]

Aha, at last, today we found our first egg - in the woodpile under the conifers! Whilst we've been waiting for our first ever brood to come into lay, provided them with a fantastic new shed (after the floods) with good size nesting box - how do I ensure they lay in the nesting boxes instead of getting the habit of laying anywhere else instead?

Is it as simple as getting a few pot eggs to give them the idea?

[Thomzo]

I used pot eggs and they immediately got the idea. I already had a wooden egg which I just painted with acrylic paint. I also bought one from a charity shop for a few pence.

Zoe

[Bezzie]

Hiya Zoe

Good to talk to you again. I did wonder whether it was going to be as simple as that, and then wondered if that was just too easy ......... will see if my local feed supplier has any, other than that will get some off ebay. No way do I want to be hunting under the conifers once the weather turns around again!

[Bonniegirl]

Keep them shut in the coop until they have layed, do this for a few days they'll soon get the hang of it!

[theabsinthefairy]

Whether you try pot eggs or shutting them in - do it quickly because once they start to lay and find their own spot it will be harder to get them to move away from there.

Ours like to lay in the feed room on top of sacks of sawdust, and now even when they roam out for quite a distance they come all come back and take it in turns to lay in the same spot - very easy to find the eggs then.

[Bezzie]

Okay, all these measures taken on board - no free ranging for these guys for several days then ....

Will keep you posted on the results.

[Stonehead]

But even with training or keeping them in until they've laid, you'll still get the contrarian. One of ours will not lay in the nest boxes - even if kept in all day. She'll just hold that egg until she's allowed out and then will lay wherever takes her fancy - middle of the path, in the nettles, under a tree, on a wall, in the grit tray, etc.

She also likes to hide when it's time for bed, and as we have foxes, stoats, weasels, hawks etc, we have to find her. She gets up trees, into the middle of nettle patches, in the buildings - even cramming herself into holes in the ground. It makes putting the hens to bed an adventure in itself - last week it took nearly 40 minutes to find her with two of us with torches and lanterns. She was quite pleased by the attention!

[Thomzo]

Oh Stonehead, I will never again complain about my girls! They think that by running around the garden for 5 minutes when I want them to come in, that they are being difficult. I am so lucky. If one of them is out and the others are all inside she soon wants to see what is going on and is desperate to get in again.

Cheers
Zoe

[camillitech]

we've got one that refuses to lay in the hoose but i can't shut them in it cos it's not that kind of hoose as we don't have any foxes dunno why she's started this carry on after a year of laying inside. can't even keep them in their run as i used the chicken wire for something else think i'm gonna have to make em another larger lockable hoose.

[Bezzie]

Gosh, I must be real lucky with my lot then. Since they had their new shed, they're going to bed about 7pm (even on bright sunny days) and complain like hell when I go to shut up the door for the night cos it disturbs them.
Getting them to bed - they all take themselves very happily.

Just the nesting bit is the challenge. Hope that will resolve in the coming days. They're all slightly mixed ages with some coming into lay now, and some due several weeks later - will that cause additional complications or will the second lot learn from the first lot?

[Stonehead]

Oh Stonehead, I will never again complain about my girls! They think that by running around the garden for 5 minutes when I want them to come in, that they are being difficult. I am so lucky. If one of them is out and the others are all inside she soon wants to see what is going on and is desperate to get in again.

Cheers
Zoe

You don't know the half of it. Our ISA Browns are the scraggiest, ugliest flock of hens you'd think you could see.

We thought we'd broken them of their feather-pecking habit with a combination of stink sprays and beak rings. But a couple of months on and the beak rings wore through with the result that I went out to put the girls to bed last week onyl to discover they've turned into self pluckers again. All are missing large areas of feathers, while some are almost nude!

Mention the problem on poultry forums and you get all the instant expert views:

• the hens are bored so peg up some cabbage leaves (but they roam around under the trees, up the banks, through the nettles and even across the road),
• they have mites (no),
• they have worms (no, and wormed recently too),
• they're stressed (does this sound stressed - a dozen hens, sleeping in dusty holes in the sun, with plenty of shade, shelter, food and water, and a big house to go to in the evening?)
• They're too confined and bullied (the hens roam around outside from dawn to dusk, there's plenty of places for bullied ones to hide, and in any case, they're all doing the feather pecking)
• They're diet is "unbalanced" (sigh, they get layer's pellets in the morning, a small amount of barley and wheat in the evening, there's plenty of grit and eggshell, and they forage outside all day)
• They're not getting enough light (well, this is Scotland so there may be some truth to that!! )

The problem with these "causes" is that they all relate to birds kept in close confinement and/or with poor feed or lack of water. What I haven't been able to find out is what causes feather pecking in outdoor, free-range birds that aren't stressed.

And it's only the ISA Browns. The Scots Greys, whether the free-range ones elsewhere on the croft or the ones confined to breeding boxes, don't do it despite being managed in exactly the same way.

All I'm left with is that they're just a bunch of old pluckers!!

[Martin]

one thing we found with Hisex birds (very like ISAs) was we'd get an outbreak of feather pecking when the weather was hot - the preen gland at the base of the tale can get red and inflamed, and the other hens go "oooh food", and peck like mad - sometimes we'd end up with a hen with a deep hole in her back - we found the only cure was to isolate the affected hen, and we had garlic powder (not salt) in a sugar shaker - just apply liberally to the wound, and within a few days they have a rock-hard scab off which the other bird's beaks bounce!

[Stonehead]

one thing we found with Hisex birds (very like ISAs) was we'd get an outbreak of feather pecking when the weather was hot - the preen gland at the base of the tale can get red and inflamed, and the other hens go "oooh food", and peck like mad - sometimes we'd end up with a hen with a deep hole in her back - we found the only cure was to isolate the affected hen, and we had garlic powder (not salt) in a sugar shaker - just apply liberally to the wound, and within a few days they have a rock-hard scab off which the other bird's beaks bounce!

Thanks, but it's not due to hot weather as we've only had half a dozen days up around the 20-21 mark this summer. In fact, it's raining steadily at the moment.

Also, the feather pecking is all over - neck, wings, chest, tails, rumps, the lot. I've ordered more beak rings and have been applied the stink bomb spray liberally again much to their displeasure, but I have a suspicion that this will be only another two to three month fix.

There's no cannibalism, though.

[Bezzie]

This may not be helpful - but my mum was listening to me chuckling at Stonehead's forum response and decided she wanted to help - she says what would happen if you knitted them woolly jumpers?

There's a reason old ladies move in with their families isn't there ....

Kept my girls up for two days now. Got one laying at the other side of the run in the open, and two of them laying on TOP of the nesting box so it's rolled down to the window edge (our nest box is completely indoors).

Someone suggested locally that I may need to try and make the nest box darker with a narrower opening - so will try to make adjustments in the next couple of days.

Put wire netting at an angle on top of the nest box to discourage them from roosting on the top, but the plebs have just battered it down and treated it as a more comfortable support!

Will try to send you some sunshine Stonehead - keep up the musings.

[Stonehead]

This may not be helpful - but my mum was listening to me chuckling at Stonehead's forum response and decided she wanted to help - she says what would happen if you knitted them woolly jumpers?

There's a reason old ladies move in with their families isn't there ....

I did consider tying some old teatowels around them...