Where will they lay?

[Mortos]

My chickens are 4 months old now and they go to their coop at night where I lock them up. In the morning, I let them out and let them free range all day until they put themselves back in the coop. They roam over a couple of acres during the day but spend most of their time in a grove of trees. When they start laying, will the go back to the coop or lay somewhere on the ground? Don't want to miss out on my first eggs.

 

[artsyrobin]

you will start seeing signs they are getting close- they will wander around saying 'brrrrr' then practice a nest box, the best thing to do is put a nextbox(we use a storage bin) and put a boiled egg in it- they seem to instinctively know to lay there if they see an egg....

 

[dsqard]

If you have a run for them I would suggest keeping them in the run and not letting them free range when they first start laying. That way they will use the nest boxes when they first start. I have been doing this with mine and so far both of my girls that have started laying have used the nest box. I let them out to free range after they lay usually but I did have one of the girls out free ranging and she went back into the coop to lay when it was time.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

We bush whacked for weeks thinking they started a clutch of eggs somewhere. I'd built a double decker nesting box for em in the run (run door is always open during days) and placed a plastic egg in it. They kept rolling it out. All said and done and after I took the egg out and continuous futile egg hunts the first egg apeared in one of the boxes all by itself

It's exhillerating.

A cute observation on nesting is the back to my boxes will fall down in extreme wind gusts. Ran out of the scrap plywood and am saving the 4x4 peice I lean against the run where the nest are for a backing. Yeah, yeah, the finished coop with nesting boxes is not done yet

One of the hens was running about the yard inspecting every nook and cranny one day. I could'nt figure out what was up with her and why all the racket. Finnally I went to the coop to check the feed/water situation and noticed the leaning plywood backing was knocked over. Within 2 minutes of replacing it she was in the nest. I guess what I'm saying is the dimensions and security of location of nesting boxes are ideal for chickens to naturally use them. If it has a back to it of course.