The silliest way i noticed to get chickens to lay eggs at a timely manner is to build the small coops you see in the Meadows exactly like that. Create 1 for each chicken you got. Small hole for breathing and a roof. They be poppin out them eggs for me now, i got 4 chickens!

EDIT: edited to say it seems like a lot of the things in the meadows are great examples. I just hope one day once we hit a certain tier we can plant raspberries and blueberries. yes i know there's a mod for that buttt i'm not a super mod kinda person ;/