Will My Chickens Know Where to Lay Eggs?

[ChickensMomma]

My Three Red Sex Link 18 Week chickens are in a pen, and we let them free range during the day to evening. They have not started to lay eggs but I want to make sure I am aware of what to expect. What time of day will they lay their eggs? Should I wait until later in the morning to let them out to free range so they can lay their eggs in the pen? Will they know to come back to the pen during the day to lay their eggs if they happen to lay during the day? I don't want to find eggs all over the yard. They also like to spend some time under our porch. I am afraid they might start to think that is a good place to lay eggs. How do I make sure they will lay their eggs in our pen so its easy to gather them? Also, what should I layer their nest box with?

 

[QueenMisha]

Hens typically lay in the morning, anytime between 6 AM. and noon. However some hens are afternoon layers, and may lay as late as 4 or 5 PM.

Some hens may use the nest boxes. Others may attempt to lay outside the coop or run. While hens be encouraged to lay in nesting boxes by placing fake eggs or golf balls in them, realistically they are chickens and will lay wherever they dang well please. This includes under the porch, under bushes, in the middle of the yard, under the roosts, and generally in the most unwanted places possible.

Nesting boxes should be lined with a generous amount of straw, with several handfuls of shavings placed in the middle.

 

[Toddrick]

Of my three hens, currently two lay around 10am, and one always lays around 1pm. Sometimes one of them lays in the evening (about once a week). They free range in the evenings on weekdays, and all day long on the weekends--weather permitting. Mine always go back to the coop to lay. In two generations I've never found an egg in the yard, and I collect about six eggs a week from each pullet. So I think they like my cozy nest boxes lined with straw quite a bit. I never did a thing to train them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

What time of day will hens lay eggs? Whenever they do. It takes an egg about 25 hours to go through a hen’s internal egg making factory from the time a yolk is released until there is an egg in the nest. A hen normally releases a yolk shortly after the egg has been laid. Light has an effect on this. Too late in the day they won’t release a yolk but will wait for the next morning. You’ll notice I’m using weasel words on this. About 25 hours could be a few hours less or a few hours more. “Normally releases a yolk shortly after” does not have a specific time attached to it. With some hens light has more of an effect than others. As a result of all this confusion, some hens might lay about the same time each day, but most will gradually lay a bit later each day until it gets too late, then the skip a day. Not all hens lay every day either. They may just lay every two or three days. Since light has an effect on when that yolk starts its journey, most of these will probably lay in the morning. With all this thrown together most eggs are laid in the mornings but I’ve had hens on the nest laying when the others are going to bed at night.

All that is for a hen that is in the rhythm of laying. When a pullet first starts out she might have some bugs in her system that need to get worked out. That’s why you sometimes get some really weird eggs when the pullets first start to lay. Most get it right from the start but some take a while to get it straightened out.

The same is true for where a pullet lays her first egg. Some have control right from the start. About a week before they lay their first egg they start looking for a good place to lay. If you have older hens already laying they seem to teach the pullets where to lay. I like having older hens in my flock. But some pullets don’t have control over their first eggs. They just drop them wherever they are, the roosts, the coop floor, or just walking around. But when they lay their first controlled egg that normally becomes their nest and where they want to lay from then on. They will leave the flock and go to that place to lay when it is time. Hopefully that is in your coop and in your nests but not always. Who said life had to be easy?

Fake eggs in the nest do help. Many hens and pullets like to lay where others are laying, many but not all. That’s why you need to keep any accidental eggs picked up. They may decide that is a safe place to lay. I use golf balls but ceramic or wooden eggs work. Many people use plastic Easter eggs or even ping pong balls for bantams.

We use all kinds of things to line the nests. Straw, hay, or wood shavings seem to be the most popular but some people use rags, carpet, folded feed bags, shredded paper, or even Spanish moss. I cut long mature grass and dry it so I guess that is technically hay since the seeds are often still attached. My thoughts on that is that it should be something you are comfortable with and readily available and cheap.

I don’t know when yours will start to lay. If you can leave them locked in the coop or coop and run when they start you can greatly influence where they lay that first controlled egg, especially using fake eggs. That’s a real good start but it does not give you any guarantee that she won’t change her mind and start laying elsewhere at any time. They are living animals. They are going to do what they are going to do. The best we can hope to do is influence them.

Good luck!