When Will Your Backyard Chickens Lay Their First Egg? A Joyful Guide for New Keepers

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Yesterday morning, while I was doing my usual chicken chores, I spotted something I’ve been dreaming about since the day we brought our chicks home — our very first egg!

I may or may not have squealed loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear. 🥚✨

The Backstory: How We Started Our Backyard Chicken Flock (and Why We Chose Buff Orpingtons)

The first egg has been a long-time coming journey. We got our chickens on March 28th and have been anticipating this moment ever since!

Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed about the day when I could finally have my own animals to take care of. After a lot of research and months of convincing my husband, we finally decided to start our flock. 

I wasn’t really in it for the eggs…my husband was all for it since we were going to be spending money on these things, he needed at least a return out of it, but to me their friendship is more than enough of a return! 

We have three Buff Orpington hens, and I could not be happier with this breed. Not only are they so cute and fluffy, but they are the calmest and nicest chickens EVER! 

I did a lot of research before settling on a breed I wanted, and quite literally jumped and screamed out loud when they finally had them at my local tractor supply after weeks and weeks of checking every day for them. 

As a first-time chicken mama, of course, there were tons to learn and keep learning.

Their chick days were cute and offered little to no problems until they started getting bigger and escaping their pen, which is where one of our girls got her name as Rebel! 

Until we moved them outside to their coop and run, they offered nothing but laughter, cuteness, and snuggles as I formed a special bond with my chickie Honey, who would snuggle on me almost every night and fall asleep on me! 

Then the day finally happened where it was time for them to go outside I was anxious for them to be outside the safety of our home but knew they needed to be outside where they would be happiest. 

We faced some challenges with predators, and you can read about them in this post here. With everything we did to prepare some something just can’t be avoided when raising prey animals I just didn’t think I would have to learn that lesson so soon! 

They recovered from losing a sister and continued to grow and develop. Then we just waited….

Signs Our Chickens Were About to Lay Their First Egg

After months of waiting, my sweet chickie Honey surprised us by being the first to lay at exactly 20 weeks old.

I had a feeling the big day was getting close.

About a week and a half before Honey laid her first egg, she went through what I can only describe as her adolescent/hormone stage.

For 2–3 days, if I tried to pick her up, she would puff out all her feathers and cluck rapidly in warning.

At first, this was honestly a little disheartening because she had always let me pick her up and snuggle her with no problem. I’ve always treated her like a mom would a daughter, and all I’d ever done was love her — but suddenly, she was acting standoffish.

I quickly realized this was probably the first sign her hormones were changing and her body was preparing to start laying eggs. Around this same time, she also became much more vocal.

Now that I know what the “egg song” sounds like, I can look back and remember that one morning Rebel was practicing her song for everyone to hear — another classic sign that chickens are getting close to laying.

One of the most obvious changes was in Honey’s comb and wattles. It’s funny because, even as a chick, she was the least developed of our three Buff Orpingtons — the others had larger, redder combs and wattles weeks before she did.

But right around the time she started acting sassy, her comb and wattles became a deep red, and her wattles grew much bigger.

Another telltale sign your hens are close to laying is the egg squat. I didn’t know about this at first until I stumbled across it in my research (and some hilarious Instagram reels).

Basically, the hen will extend her wings slightly and crouch low to the ground — a biological behavior for when a rooster mounts them.

In our flock, this started about a week before the first egg, and soon anytime I reached to pet or pick them up, they would squat.

As far as preparation goes, I didn’t change much. I switched them to layer feed around 18 weeks and added fresh bedding to the nesting boxes about two weeks before I expected the first egg.

Of course, in true chicken fashion, our very first egg ended up on the roosting shelf instead of in a nesting box.

And very ironically, as I’m typing this, I just heard one of them singing the egg song. I ran to check and — sure enough — there’s another egg… sitting right on top of the pine shavings bag! 😂😂

 The First Egg Moment

For the past few weeks, I’d been checking on the girls every morning around 7:30. On this particular morning, I peeked in the coop window first — and there it was. In all its beautiful glory, just sitting there… on their shelf.

I gasped out loud. “Oh my gosh… the first egg!!”

It was definitely smaller than a store-bought egg, which I knew was normal. First eggs, also called pullet eggs, are almost always smaller until the hen’s laying cycle becomes regular.

The shell actually surprised me. I had heard that many first eggs are laid without a fully formed shell, but this one was firm, solid, and cleaner than I expected.

There was a small crack on one side, likely from a curious peck, and the bottom where it had been sitting was slightly caved in. After looking it up, I learned that’s common in new layers — sometimes the shell isn’t fully fortified yet, and if the egg sits for hours, it can develop a soft spot.

Sure enough, when I checked our coop camera, I was able to pinpoint the exact moment: 3:14 in the morning!

The second I found it, I snapped a picture and sent it to Matt, my family, and my friends with the proud caption: THE FIRST EGG!!

How Many Eggs We Expect & What We’ll Do With Them

Now that the girls are starting to lay, I can expect around 2–3 eggs per day, which adds up to 14–21 fresh backyard eggs each week. That’s a lot of omelets, baking projects, and happy neighbors!

I’m not sure yet what we’ll do with the very first eggs since they were cracked, which can make it easier for bacteria to get in. I might just cook them up and feed them back to the chickens for an extra protein boost, then dry and crush the eggshells to return the calcium to their diet.

Either way, I am so excited to start seeing eggs every morning and to have enough to share with family, friends, and especially our neighbors — since they’ve been getting the full soundtrack of our hens’ egg songs.Now that the girls are starting to lay, I can expect around 2–3 eggs per day, which adds up to 14–21 fresh backyard eggs each week. That’s a lot of omelets, baking projects, and happy neighbors!

I’m not sure yet what we’ll do with the very first eggs since they were cracked, which can make it easier for bacteria to get in. I might just cook them up and feed them back to the chickens for an extra protein boost, then dry and crush the eggshells to return the calcium to their diet.

Either way, I am so excited to start seeing eggs every morning and to have enough to share with family, friends, and especially our neighbors — since they’ve been getting the full soundtrack of our hens’ egg songs.

Tips for New Chicken Owners Waiting on Their First Egg

Patience really is the name of the game when it comes to waiting for that first egg.

 Some hens will surprise you and lay earlier than “average,” while others take their sweet time. Honestly, it’s kind of like waiting for popcorn to start popping — you stare at the nesting box for weeks, then boom, one day it’s finally there.

One thing I always recommend is offering oyster shell for calcium. 

Even if your hens are on layer feed, having a separate dish of oyster shell lets them take it as they need it, which helps keep their shells strong and healthy.

And once you notice the signs they’re getting close — redder combs, egg squats, or practicing the egg song — check those nesting boxes daily… or even twice a day. 

Trust me, you don’t want to miss the moment, and you definitely don’t want your first egg ending up in a weird place (looking at you, pine shavings bag).

Celebrating Your First Chicken Egg: Just the Beginning

Finding your very first chicken egg is more than just breakfast — it’s a milestone that marks all the care, patience, and love you’ve poured into your flock.

Whether you have a handful of hens or a growing backyard coop, this tiny treasure is a reminder that the best parts of homesteading often come in small, beautiful moments. As your chickens keep laying, you’ll collect hundreds more, but you’ll always remember that first egg and the joy it brought.

Here’s to many more days of gathering, smiling, and savoring the simple rewards of raising chickens.

I want to hear your story!

I’d love to hear from you — have you had your own “first egg” moment yet? 🥚 Tell me all about it in the comments! Whether it was tiny, cracked, laid in the perfect nest, or hidden somewhere completely random, I want to hear your story.🐔