Laying Eggs

[Dirt Girl 1964]

We have our first egg! In a big planter on our deck.
We are so excited, but how do we train our free-range chickens to lay the eggs inside the coop?
Do they usually lay in early morning?
How quickly do we have to get them out of the coop?

 

[Den in Penn]

Lock them in the coop with the nest boxes till they are in the habit of using them. If you haven't yet place a decoy egg in the boxes to lure the pullets to use the boxes. They do tend to lay in the morning to late afternoon. If you think they are done laying for the day, you can let them out in the late afternoon or evening.

 

[Mattemma]

I would lock them up too.Remove the pots they laid in.iscourage other spots.I have mine in the back woods,and I put a nest box back there.I get eggs at all hours of the day.My roo would go IN to the nest boxes and let the ladies know it was a good place to lay,lol.

When I first started taking them to the back back yard they would pace the fence to get back to the shed coop to lay.I even found an egg in the grass one day by the gate! Eventually they gave up and started laying in the other nest box under the lean to I built them.