My second post and another question from a brand new chickens owner.

[collinski]

Can anyone tell me when (what time of day) do chickens lay their eggs? My 6 girls are only 4 to 5 months old and haven't started laying yet, but if they lay in the morning, I don't want to let them out of the coop to early before they have all laid their eggs. Also, we only have two nest boxes in our coop and there are the 6 hens. Is this a problem? I've read where people have build multiple boxes and they all use the same one.

 

[4-H chicken mom]

and

from Ohio. So glad you joined. It all depends on the chicken. Some of mine lay in the morning and some in the afternoon. I let mine out and they go back in when they need to lay their eggs.

 

[laurabonitahopkins]

Hi, and welcome from Denver! My chicks aren't laying yet, so I can't address time of day they lay. But I did do a lot of reading before we got ours, and everything I read said you can have 3 hens sharing a nest box with no problems. I have heard a lot of people say they have plenty of boxes and all the hens want to use the same one! Good luck!

 

[Black Cochin Bantams]

Mine do not lay on a schedule. Morning one day early afternoon another then may skip a day . More like I expect 5-6 eggs per week per hen when laying well. Slow way down when "HOT"or cold out. Mine stop in the winter until late Feb early March unless artificial light is used to lengthen the day. If you ever do that set it up on a timer to come on early and shut off mid morning then they will roost normally at end of day. It doesn't take much light. I use an LED Xmas light string that uses minimum energy and won't burn out quickly.

 

[weimarmama]

&

from Alabama. Glad you joined us. Ours aren't really on a schedule, either. Some lay eggs in the morning, but then others lay later in the day.

 

[dawg53]

Welcome to BYC.

 

[franklinchickens]

I had 2 hens lay eggs this morning and 2 late this afternoon. The rest aren't old enough yet but I suspect they'll lay whenever they feel like it. They'll go back in to the coop and the nest boxes when they want to lay (unless you get a rogue layer like one of my EE's - she finds weird places to lay).
And we also have 2 nest boxes. We started with 4 hens and were also worried. We now have 10 and we aren't planning on adding any more boxes. Why, you may ask? Because they all use the same darn box! I had 2 hens sitting on top of each other today both trying to lay in 1 box with a perfectly good empty box right next to them. Same thing in the afternoon with the other 2. I figure if we start seeing them using both boxes, we'll add another 1 or 2 but for now, we're sticking with the 2 we have.

 

[collinski]

I love the quick and helpful responses! Thanks so much!! I can't figure out how to post pictures of my coop and chickens on my BYC profile page. Can someone direct me to where I can learn how to do that?

 

[NonnasBabies]

&

from Louisiana! MInes the same as everyones elses! They lay all different times of the day!

 

[texasgal]

A big Texas-sized