So when your chickens start laying eggs...

[Cocotte]

Can you tell which chicken laid which egg? Will they sit on their egg until you take it away, or do you just go check them in the morning and surprise! there's an egg in a next box? What time of day do they usually lay an egg? I'd like to let mine roam around in the back yard most of the day (when I get them) and am hoping they'll lay their eggs in next boxes and I won't have to hunt all over the yard to find them.

 

[chocolate m'scovy]

Some lay in the morning, and some lay in the afternoon. Most of them lay too late for the mythical "fresh eggs for breakfast." Some like to hoard their egg for a while, but most will run off and leave it. I would like all my hens to lay in their nest boxes, but there's always those stubborn few who are set on showing off their creativity. In other words, chickens follow no set of rules and you simply have to learn along with them.

 

[Dixiedoodle]

Some of my girls lay in the morning, some lay very late afternoon, most lay 10 to 2..If I wait until after 3, before I let them free-range, I (usually) only have two that run back to the coop to lay..

Most of my girls have laid in the nest boxes, but one of my EE (very low in the pecking order--wondering if that has something to do w/ it??) is laying in the corner, UNDER the nest box.. She makes the nicest little nest with all the clean deep shavings that are there and lays there almost every day.. I did find one pullet egg (I think Sassy (stray Dominique) is laying in the run but today it was in the nest box..

 

[SilkieTime]

Put a gulf ball where you want them to lay. It might help.

 

[InsaneBreeder]

I can tell which of my chickens laid which eggs (you just have to observe each one laying once and examine the egg afterwards), but if you have all the same breed or a large flock, it might be difficult.

 

[nwgirl]

I installed a baby monitor in the coop and monitored the hens as they started laying for the first time. After a few months I've learned who lays the torpedo egg, the small round egg, the spotted egg, and the big heavy egg. It hasn't been too difficult considering I only have 4 hens.

 

[Cocotte]

Quote:
Really?? I'll have to remember that!

 

[Cocotte]

Thanks for all the info/tips! I guess I'll just have to really pay attention and hope that they like to lay in the next boxes and not somewhere out in the yard.. Though I guess that could be fun for the kids to go out and hunt for eggs -- like easter every day, lol!

 

[kwynn's birds Alaska]

When I first got chickens, I actually stood outside the coop, peeking in to see who went in the boxes, and what color egg was in there when they came out. I hung out in the backyard pretty much all day. I only had seven, so it wasn't too hard to do. They were given to me and I knew not a thing about them.

also, I don't let them range, I keep them in a coop and run, and they just lay in the boxes. I sometimes get a floor egg, or one in the dirtbath. My SIL freeranges, and all the time, she finds piles of hidden eggs, that she just throws out because she has no idea how old they are. I think that's wastful, but she does have happy girls