Finally....EGGS!

[hereiam]

Woohoo! The first of 7 hens is now laying eggs. (would have been 8, but one is a darn roo! :roll: My suburb dwelling neighbors are gonna love me!)

I'm excited and my daughter can hardly stand to wait out each morning and evening to see if another egg has been laid.

We have only one bird laying right now, and she is putting out 2 a day! :shock: We were told that one a day would be outstanding, but not likely for her breed. (Barred Rock) I guess my question is:

Is it normal to have a chicken start out laying more eggs at first and then slow down after a month or two? Or will she probably keep on laying at this general rate until it cools down and she has to use energy to stay warm/less daylight? I know she'll lay less when she's older, but how long might I expect the two a day rate?

We were told that Barred Rocks lay 3 a week consistently though it could be more. I can't imagine when all 7 hens are laying if they all lay at 2 a day! We'll be selling eggs before we know it.....and that was not our intention. lol

[morelcabin]

My barred rocks lay almost every day, consistantly through the winter as well. They are a good layer

[Summerthyme]

You've got more than one hen laying. Period. You'll occasionally get two eggs in "one" day, due to them laying on a "not quite 24 hour" cycle. But pullets (baby hens) don't lay even daily, as a general rule. Someone is pulling a fast one on you, but that's ok... they'll settle down and pretty well lay an egg a day each until the days start getting shorter.

Summerthyme

[natty threads]

YAY EGGS!

I agree that you have more than one laying.

Bless up,
Natty

[momof23goats]

I agree with Summerthyme, If your getting 2 eggs a day you have more than one hen laying for sure.

[IRo]

My girls are 21 weeks old now. Not an egg yet!! :sad: The guy I got my girls from, bought 25 from McMurray and sold us 9. He e-mailed to see how mine are doing and to let me know his started laying last week! I'm beginning to think they will NEVER lay an egg.

[frank4]

My girls are 21 weeks old now. Not an egg yet!! :sad: The guy I got my girls from, bought 25 from McMurray and sold us 9. He e-mailed to see how mine are doing and to let me know his started laying last week! I'm beginning to think they will NEVER lay an egg.

What breed? if they are sex links they usually don't start until 22-23 weeks.In my expeirience and I have never had leghorns there supposed to be 41/2 to 5 months.the fastest chicken I've seen start laying eggs were egyptian fayomis at 10 1/2 weeks but they are tiny eggs. I have sex links and dark brahmas the brahmas took along timebefore they started laying.

As long as they have plenty of water and layer pellets or your own mix with oyster shell in it.
Good Luck

[hereiam]

All of our older girls were nearly 6 months before they started to lay. (Barred Rock, Orpington, Rhode Island Red, Americauna) Our younger gals look as though they may beat the others as they are showing signs and they are just now 4 months. (Another Orpington, and a Brahma) The older girls didn't show the same signs until they were within a couple weeks of laying. (Submissive squat when you go to pet them, kicking out the straw from the nesting boxes, and the blood red combs and waddles) I wonder if having a Roo in with the younger girls has sped them along a bit....cause HE sure thinks they are ready to start laying. :shock::oops: It'll happen....

We had neighbors that laughed at us with our first batch of chickens when we'd been feeding the darn birds for two months with no eggs yet. We'd been told when we got them that they were about 18 weeks old. Of course, now I know better having raised some from chicks and the first batch we got weren't but about 12 weeks when we got them. (eyerollie)

Point is...they'll lay when THEY are ready. ;) Course, you could always hang a KFC sign on their coop to encourage them a bit. Roflol

[Rumpelstump]

If you keep the flock/heard from infighting, and give them space there should be plenty of eggs.

But as I told my cousine (xxxhead), you can´t expect them to sell the eggs too.

Then he got the hint, and tried sheep.
But same problem, since he´s just a greedy low life.

Now it´s just other people´s horses left, they take care of their own.
He sure did not take care of his, lucky he has teeth left in his mouth.

Time to listen to nice music again, but I´s so refreshing to read about people careing of their animals, and yes I do get violent against people who abuse animals.

Thanks :)

[Rumpelstump]

Sorry to be so agressive, but the people of Jesus burned to death in Phakistan just make me so full of rage i can hardly think.

[IRo]

YAHOOOOO Went to visit the girls after work and there were 3... yes count em .....3 eggs in their pen!!!!!!

Don't they know that's what nesting boxes are for?? And thankfully, they didn't step on and break their eggs!!

I'm such a proud mama today :mrgreen:

[Rumpelstump]

I´m so happy for you :)

The best part is letting a wild bird lay eggs in the wild.

The 11(dead) year old mrs of my rooster used to lay eggs all over the garden, had to work hard to find them so she would return at night to safe house.

If not she would not eat/****/move before time has come.
Even the cat could not follow up on other cats, so I interveaned.

What a great cat, understood she was not to kill birds.