Just found out why my birds aren't laying....

[ChasingSquirrels]

.... because they are, just not in the nest box but under the hedge. found a nest with 20 eggs in (we have 2 birds). That's where she keeps disappearing to when we can't find here then.

have cleared out and blocked the area off, so hopefully we will be having omlettes again soon.

Hate to say it, but you may find they just start laying somewhere else! You might be better to just let them lay there so you at least know where to find them! Ours handily lay under a bush by the side of the house which is much closer than the hen house at the bottom of the garden!!

oh dear! but at least now I know and can search around.

I have 4 hens, this springs chicks, who recently came into lay and nest wherever they like. Sometimes I find the eggs but usually once I've cleared the nest they start laying somewhere else. I've put china eggs in their nest box to give them a hint but it only worked for one day.

I have about 20 other layers so I'm not short of eggs. But I don't want eggs available for the rats/foxes to get a taste for, so these hens will be for the pot.

If your hens have always laid in the nestbox until recently, is it because the nestbox is now infested with something? Or being nibbled at by rats? Are you able to keep them in house/run until they've laid?

umm, I have had them since July, they have always laid in the box and the area where they made the nest was available before.
I'll have a look at the nest box, wouldn't rats be more likely in the under-the-hedge-nest than in the house?
I kept them in the run for a couple of days last week when I was working all day as one keeps escaping - they laid then which is when I suspected they were laying elsewhere. I have wondered about keeping them in it for a few hours in the morning until they lay.

Keeping in them in until mid-morning or lunchtime might be long enough (I have some lazy birds that don't lay until the afternoon but the vast majority are done by 1pm).

Hopefully if they do start using the box again, they'll get back in the habit of using it and it'll be omelettes-ahoy.

keeping them in till they lay is an option id consider.

yes, they do lay in the morning, run seems so small for them though ah well, will have a look at the nest box and keep them in the run in the morning for a few weeks.
Thanks

any chance you can extend the run a bit?

wont do them any harm really to learn to lay before theyre let out. once they get used to the routine its easy, chickens are creatures of habit i think.

I don't mind her laying under that bush - now I know about it.
I do mind that she keeps escaping from the enclosure - and how??? It was netted at the front but there were places she could get out, yesterday we changed the area, made it smaller and fully netted the top of it with just a small gap that she would have to do a vertical 5ft take off to get out of. Came home today and she is in next door's garden .
As long as she doesn't start laying in their garden...

but 2 eggs in the next box today, with the relevant bush being fenced (well an old pallet) off.

Have you cut the primary feathers? Our chickens kept escaping from a 5 foot high fence until i caught them at it one day.
Snip, snip and they stay where they are supposed to be.

I know, I know I have to clip her, I know - I just haven't done it yet! Right, will definately do it over the holidays

thing is, once you find a surreptitious nest, they go and move somewhere else, coz they know theyve been discovered and raided - not so dumb as people think huh?

clipping one wing does help keep them in one place. luckily mine are now completely free range so i dont clip the wings as i figure they might need them to get away from a predator sometime!

how do you work completely free range, do you have fields and fields? I could let them free range in the back garden - but they would just destroy it, and if they got out would they just come back?
I only have 2, so the area they have (outside the run which I rarely use) seems big enough - but they have completely destroyed it, so she is off in earch of fresh grass.

yeah, am lucky to live on an old farm so we have a few acres of garden plus a couple of fields. they have the run of wherever they want to go... and they do always come home to roost at dusk. occassionally i find one or two perched on the kids climbing frame thing for the night if i go out to shut the door a bit late, but i just pick em up and pop them in the shed before closing the pophole for the night.

they can indeed destroy grass pretty quickly.
i think if i had , say, my dads house which is a small terrace in london with a small back garden id prob cage the entire thing or b=uild a giant walk in run with chicken assault course type set up, perches about the place and the like... and/or fence off any bits i didnt want destroyed. but is much easier said than done no doubt. i do appreciate how lucky i am !

well, one wing clipped - she was straight out.
both wings clipped - next day she was in!!! Day after she was out .
No idea if she is going over, through the small gaps where there is no netting, or through a bush.
ggggrrrrrr