18 weeks old

Today my small flock of 7 turned 18 weeks old. (They are red sex links) This is my first time raising chickens . so any comments would be appreciated. I was wondering when I can expect eggs. when they turned 16 weeks old I opened the nesting boxes and put fake eggs in the straw inside the nest.so they could see the eggs in there, when I first opened the nesting boxes the hens went in exploring them, and the next day one of the eggs was on the floor of the coop, so I removed some of the straw and built up the lip in front of the boxes. since then the eggs stay in the nest.
everyday when I go out to clean the poops , and check there water, I open the nesting boxes to see if they started laying yet, and to see if they are roosting inside them, but I have not seen any poop inside the boxes, and when I go out to close the pop door at night, they are all up on the roost. (that is a good thing). I check in the run and on the coop floor for eggs also daily. so I am wondering what I can start to expect in the near future, and if I am doing things right.
thank you

As best I can recall, my RSL girls started laying around 22-24 weeks old so you might have to wait a bit longer. Are their combs and wattles getting redder or have they started to squat yet?

Hope you are enjoying them, I thought my RSL's were the real comedians of the flock, lol.

I have 3 RSL and they all started laying about 17 to 18 weeks. I was a first time owner and I noticed rather suddenly that their combs grew and then where very red. I was unsure what squatting was (and still am haha!), so I just watched the comb.

18 weeks is still quite early. Mine aren't red sex links, but they are all at least 24 weeks and only 1 started laying (last week).

I have 5 BSL and they have been teasing me for about 2 weeks. Their comb and waddles are very red, they squat every time I get near, I was told if you can fit 3 fingers between the bones they are gonna lay in the very near future, I just don't know for sure where the bones are to check that. LOL I hope this helps and if someone could answer about the bone it would be a big help to me!

their comb and waddles are getting red, I have not noticed any squatting yet, and if they are I have not noticed that either

I got my first egg from my 23 week old red sex link yesterday. It's been very cold where I am (central Oregon) and yesterday was our first day above freezing in a few weeks. I think she liked it.

it has been above freezing here also, the last few days

When birds mature to near laying age in the darkening days of fall/winter it can take a bit longer for them to start.
It's not about the temperature but the length of daylight...which is slowly but exponentially increasing each day, so it shouldn't be too long.
You might not see squatting.....messed up nests seemed to be definite and almost immediate precursors for me this year.......that and a LOT of vocalizations.

aart said:

When birds mature to near laying age in the darkening days of fall/winter it can take a bit longer for them to start.
It's not about the temperature but the length of daylight...which is slowly but exponentially increasing each day, so it shouldn't be too long.
You might not see squatting.....messed up nests seemed to be definite and almost immediate precursors for me this year.......that and a LOT of vocalizations.

Click to expand...

I did notice this morning when I went out to the coop, that one of the nest had the bedding moved around , the fake egg was sorta buried in the bedding, I did not see any poops in there.so I don't think any of them are using it to roost in. also I have noticed they are a bit noisier than usual, I just thought they wanted a treat lol. is there anything I should be doing?
thank you