Messy egg situation

We have a large nest for our chickens, but they all lay in the same spot. By the time we come in to pick up the eggs, several are broken (the laying chickens crush the eggs in the nest) and the spillage runs over all the intact eggs. We obviously can't sell our eggs covered in sticky yolk.

Any ideas for how to avoid this?

more egg boxes

Sorry, what I meant to say was you may need more nest boxes. We have 6 hens. I originally had only 1 nest box. We had the same problem, broken eggs and a mess. I rebuilt the nest box, enlarging it and then splitting it in two. We haven't had an issue since.

Karl

This time of year the egg shells can be thin and brittle, as chickens are redirecting calcium to regrow feathers shed in the molt. Time takes care of this. Collect eggs each day to avoid build up of eggs in the nests. Provide additional nests if you only have one. Start placing eggs in the nests they do not use and leave them for the next day...the chickens like to lay where others have laid eggs. Pretty soon they will start using other nests also.

You can also construct roll away nest boxes that keep each egg safe as soon as it is laid.

Jay Green wrote:This time of year the egg shells can be thin and brittle, as chickens are redirecting calcium to regrow feathers shed in the molt. Time takes care of this. Collect eggs each day to avoid build up of eggs in the nests. Provide additional nests if you only have one. Start placing eggs in the nests they do not use and leave them for the next day...the chickens like to lay where others have laid eggs. Pretty soon they will start using other nests also.

You can also construct roll away nest boxes that keep each egg safe as soon as it is laid.

We're in the tropics so the girls aren't molting at the moment.

I'm intrigued by the idea of a roll-away nest box. Thanks for the suggestions!