I am a first time chicken owner and two of my girls are now 23 weeks old (Buff Orpingtons) and will hopefully lay soon. I have made them a nesting box and even put a fake egg in it and it is in the coop. I have never seen them go in the coop during the day though. I am hoping they will go in there to lay so I don't have to go egg hunting every day. Has anybody else experienced this and what happened when their chickens started laying. They have free range of my whole back yard so not just a designated run.
When they first start, they might lay anywhere. I found a few random eggs in my backyard, where the chickens live. They quickly started using the boxes in the coop afterwards. I use golf balls as dummy eggs.
You might try leaving them in the coop for a few hours after sunrise, many birds tend to lay earlier in the day. I would also use fake eggs in the nest box.
