Arvo All, just a quick question while I’m at work.

What’ the best way to show a couple of new chooks where to lay their eggs?
It’s taken me about 3 weeks just to teach then where they need to go at night.
So now I’m finding shells in their pen.
I’m only home on the weekends around the time they lay.
Will chooks naturally find a quiet dark place to lay?
I only have these two chooks.
Will check back tonite if anyone has any ideas for me.

Thanks heaps

Muschee said:

Arvo All, just a quick question while I’m at work.

What’ the best way to show a couple of new chooks where to lay their eggs?
It’s taken me about 3 weeks just to teach then where they need to go at night.
So now I’m finding shells in their pen.
I’m only home on the weekends around the time they lay.
Will chooks naturally find a quiet dark place to lay?
I only have these two chooks.
Will check back tonite if anyone has any ideas for me.

Thanks heaps

Have they got free access to shell grit?

I had an egg eater, but with about a dozen chooks in the pen and no easy way to isolate them from each other, it was difficult to work out who it was. I think the consensus I found at the time was that once a chook has a taste for eggs it was almost impossible to break the habit.

That’s assuming that the reason you’re only finding shells is because the chook/s have eaten the eggs.

Does that sound like a logical line of reasoning for the phenomenon you are witnessing?

new layers may lay anywhere for a while, but once they are into a rhythm most chooks will look for a dark protected place to lay undisturbed. That is not necessarily where you want them to lay however. One trick is to place a dummy egg, or even a golfball, in the nest. This seems to encourage them to lay there too.

Muschee said:

Arvo All, just a quick question while I’m at work. What’ the best way to show a couple of new chooks where to lay their eggs? It’s taken me about 3 weeks just to teach then where they need to go at night. So now I’m finding shells in their pen. I’m only home on the weekends around the time they lay. Will chooks naturally find a quiet dark place to lay? I only have these two chooks.
Will check back tonite if anyone has any ideas for me. Thanks heaps

I presume you have a coop(sp?) with nests in it. Its best to put food in their coop and nice new straw in their nest and lock them in for two weeks.

pepe said:

Muschee said:

Arvo All, just a quick question while I’m at work. What’ the best way to show a couple of new chooks where to lay their eggs? It’s taken me about 3 weeks just to teach then where they need to go at night. So now I’m finding shells in their pen. I’m only home on the weekends around the time they lay. Will chooks naturally find a quiet dark place to lay? I only have these two chooks.
Will check back tonite if anyone has any ideas for me. Thanks heaps

I presume you have a coop(sp?) with nests in it. Its best to put food in their coop and nice new straw in their nest and lock them in for two weeks.

Paint a couple of round rocks, white or use a golf ball…or better still a ping pong ball.

Hello everyone. Seems the only spae time to pop in at the mo is at work on smoko :(

Anyways Thanks for the replies and I will answer the questions asked.

Have they got free access to shell grit? ——— Yes they have more than plenty.
I am assuming the crows could be finding the eggs and eating them, as I do have alot hanging around all the time.

I presume you have a coop(sp?) with nests in it.———- The chooks are 19-20 weeks old. I got them at 16 weeks.
There pen has a 10×10 shed attached to it that is their sleeping and laying quarters. They have to climb up some lattice to get in and out of this shed.
I have taught them to get themselves in and out. I have an old dog kennel I have for their laying area, which is devided into 2 dark quiet areas. I’ve turned the kennel around so they can see into it and I have left an egg in one section that is visible in the hope they will get the idea.

Best not to have the nest facing a door – or main source of light. A golf ball is a good idea – but once one lays in the right place the others will want to lay exactly there – not in the the box, not beside the first one but just where the first one laid! LOL – doesn’t matter how much free space there is. Gotta love them! :)