First egg in chicken tractor.

[Iceegg]

I have a chicken tractor that has the run built under the coop. In the coop is their roosting area. They stay in the run till about 11 and then I let them out and they run all over our yard(2 acres). Today one of the chickens was acting really funny and actually ran back to the run and even went into the coop twice. So I gather the other chicken and put the 2 of them in the run and closed it. An hour later I checked the nest box and low and behold I found a egg next to my golf ball. Yeah I have an egg now! Now I was wondering will she always go back to the nest box to lay her eggs or will she just find someplace in the yard to lay them. I would like to continue letting them free range other then in their run but I also don't want to go looking all over the yard for an egg. My chickens are 19 weeks old yesterday. Also should I start to give them oyster shell. Thanks for any help.

 

[CMV]

Congratulations! They will hopefully continue to lay eggs in their nesting boxes, but they sometimes "forget" where their nesting boxes are at so they may need an occasional reminder. My girls have been using their nesting boxes for 2+ years, but just the other day I found a cache of 6 eggs in the forest. I went looking for them because I was thinking my egg count was a bit lower than expected. When that happens my girls get grounded for a couple days. They are not allowed to leave the coop until they straighten out.

Your girls are ready for oyster shell any day.

Good luck.

 

[Iceegg]

So I gave them oyster shell but no egg today so I'm wondering if it was just a fluke egg or should I expect the egg laying to start again tomorrow.