Frer range, buy not laying in nest boxes!!!

[chicken wranger]

My nine red and brown sexlinks are sixteen weeks old now and I let them free range everyday. I am worried that they are laying eggs under my house because it is cool. I have had a golfball in the nest boxes for a few weeks now. I am freaking out waiting to receive the first egg. I thought about keeping them locked up in the coop all day until I get one. Ive been checking every hour or so. Help anyone?

 

[sumi]

Hens usually start laying when they are 18+ weeks old. If your's are only 16 weeks I think you may have to wait a bit.

 

[Fred's Hens]

You are right to be concerned.

Many sex links do enter POL very early. 16 weeks is not unheard of for many of these hybrid strains. Learning to lay in the nests provided is a bit of a learned behavior. If there are older hens to teach the younger pullets, sort of monkey see, monkey do, kind of thing, there's less concern.

I'll just share what I do and you can apply it as you see best. I prefer NOT to free range POL pullets. I keep them yarded at this critical juncture. I'm just not going to do easter egg hunts. I've enough to do, plus, there are far too many places for hiding. By a couple of weeks of working out their habits and their fixating on the proper nest provided, I begin to allow them to range in the late afternoon and evening, as 99% of them will not lay after 4 pm. This still provides them 5 hours of free time, but reduces the laying off site issue to virtually a zero factor. Hope that helps.

 

[chicken wranger]

Thank you! All of the chickens I have are the same age. There is no older hen to show them what to do. I will start waiting until later to let them range. I am a teenager and most guys my age could cate less about doing something like this for the fun of ot. But I love it.