How young can they lay?

[harrisville chicken]

We have a banty frizzle that lays eggs on her own schedule. We can go weeks with no eggs and then get a three to five in a week from her. They're light brown small eggs and we find them all over the yard. (We would be very annoyed with all of this if she weren't so cute.)
We also have a 3 and a half month old Austra White that should be giving us light brown eggs when she starts laying. This past week we have found more small brown eggs than we think the Banty is capable of. Could it be that the AW is an early bloomer? Do we need to keep her in the coop to get used to the nesting box? We don't want two hens playing hide and go seek.

 

[harrisville chicken]

Bump

 

[Jeffross1968]

I would totally keep them in the coop for a week or so to get them used to using the laying box. Put a couple golf balls or something in there to help them understand. Of course, you run the risk of having them stop laying due to the stress of suddenly not free ranging, but you can't (or shouldn't) continue to have to hunt for eggs every day. Heck, your banty might not be skipping weeks...something might be getting to some of the eggs she lays. I'd go all out to get them used to the laying box before they are beyond breaking the habit....