Should I only check for eggs once a day, or often?

[tweetzone86]

I sometimes only gather eggs when I lock up after dark.
In winter multiple times a day so they don't freeze.
If there's problem, soft shell layer, I check lots, sometimes once an hour.

With pullets coming into lay I check more often out of excitement and anticipation, even after 5 years. All my older birds are used to me doing this, I take eggs right out from under most of them with little fuss, replacing real with fakies. But I don't do this with the pullets during the first week or two of their laying, don't want to freak them out and create 'nest fear'.... but I still go out and look, peeking thru the back of nest access door that I leave cracked open and walk into coop to gaze at them from the front, talking all kinds of nonsense in my 'calming voice'. I think it's good to get them used to you being in the coop when they are laying.

I am glad to hear this, especially as it's getting pretty chilly here. Thankfully our shed is insulated (finished- was here when we moved in and we just repurposed the back half for the chickens) so hopefully freezing won't be as much of an issue. But I'd rather check multiple times a day than just once anyway. I like seeing my chickens Plus me being in there lets them spread out for a few minutes in the second half of the shed until we get the run redone (stupid neighborhood cats kept getting into old one. Redoing it like Fort Knox before I lose a bird) so they don't get TOO awfully cooped up (literally).

Besides, I don't want to let them range in the yard a) unless I'm out there to keep cats at bay, and b) before they've finished laying for the day. Yesterday I got 3 eggs, so I know there's at least 3 laying and I've only gotten 1 so far this morning. Once the run is done and they're in there (no place to hide eggs in there) I know that if an egg isn't in the nest box it's in the run somewhere so I will be able to find it. Then I will be more than happy to let them out earlier.

 

[Mimi13]

While my pullets are just beginning to lay I check multiple times each day. I try my best to snatch up most eggs while still warm. I guess I want to start them off on the right foot, so to speak. And I also am wanting to put an egg to a layer. Just gotta know who laid what.

I have had some eggs laid on the floor of the run. Oops, where’d that thing come from? I’ve also had a couple kicked out of the nest boxes and a couple broken and eaten in the nest boxes. Yuk! That’s a problem I’d rather not get started. And with 19 new layers, that’s a hitch I don’t want in my giddy-up!

All of my pullets are used to me milling around in the coop all the time. I think they like it.