first egg!

[OrganicGardener]

I am new here, new to chickens.
We got our chicks almost 15 weeks ago. 6 white, 6 brown, breed(s) unknown.
This morning I found the first egg! Pretty exciting! however, it was under the roost, broken in the poop.

Should I be concerned about this? or is it just she didn't know what to do, didn't know to go to the nest boxes?
We have 3 nest boxes for 12 hens. Should we add more? or just be patient and see what happens?

 

[dianaross77]

and congrats on your egg. It takes them a while to get accustomed to the whole egg laying thing. It probably just caught her off guard. 3 nestboxes is probably enough. Did you put decoy eggs or golf balls in the nestboxes to show them where they go? That took care of the problem for me.

 

[OrganicGardener]

yes, I have plastic Easter eggs in the nest boxes.

 

[N&MSchroeder]

Hi and

I put straw/pine shavings and golf balls in my nest boxes and I could tell that they were being investigated before they were being used. There were even feathers in a couple of them. Your girls should get the hang of it! Congratulations!

 

[OrganicGardener]

yes, I saw a feather in one!