The whens and wheres of egg laying -- questions from a newbie

[fairskies]

My first chickens ever...they are just now 18 weeks old and I am in the excitement stage waiting on them to lay their first eggs. I have six hens of varying breeds (2 red sex links, 1 black sex link, 2 brown leghorn and 1 GL Wyandotte). They have a coop they sleep in and have three nesting boxes in there. During the day they free range.

Here's my question... Will they lay eggs in their boxes during the night, or are they going to start laying eggs during the day all across God's creation? This is my biggest fear. First of all, they like to spend the hottest parts of the afternoon under the shed. It would be a pain in the you-know-what to fetch eggs out from under there. Other choice locations for napping during the day include lots of brush and briar patches. Not to mention I am quite convinced my LGD would happily gobble up any eggs she found lying about.

Am I being paranoid? Will they lay in their coop at night? Or do I need to keep an eye out for eggs in random places and chicken-proof any areas I don't want them to lay in?

 

[sideWing]

Congrats on your new flock. They will lay eggs wherever they feel safe. I would expect the RSLs to lay first. Mine started in the next boxes, but we look everywhere for the first few weeks just in case. If they feel safer somewhere else then I would be worried about hiding eggs. I'm not sure what time they lay, but I think it's during the morning hours. I would be interested to hear what others say about time of day though.

 

[DrTacosMD]

They usually lay eggs in the morning. If you normally leave them in the coop overnight, just keep them in there until you get the egg and then you can let them out to free range.

The first few weeks can be very weird. My first RIR to lay started out laying her egg wherever she happened to be almost as if she was just pooping and the frequency was irregular. But after 2 weeks, she would be in the nest box for an hr and lay bigger eggs. Same sort of thing with my other RIRs. They all eventually synchronized and lay their eggs in the nest boxes in the morning.