Can you adjust when your girls lay?

[helorugger]

I have introduced artificial light and have the girls producing quite well. However, the laying seems spread over the entire day and starts 3-4 hours after the light comes on.

Does this mean that in the spring they will begin laying in late morning? I leave for work very early and would like for them to do most of their laying in the early morning but I wonder if I am asking too much. My son gets home from school at 3 and collects eggs then, but the coop is un-checked for about 8 hours before that.

Maybe I am making much out of nothing, but I don't like the idea of leaving the eggs in the coop for that long.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Unless it is extremely hot (over 90) or below freezing, it won't hurt the eggs to stay in there all day or a couple days even.

Not trying to be a smart aleck but can a woman adjust her monthly cycle? Because that is what an egg is.
She can't decide when to do it. She may be able to hold it a little but if her body is ovulating, the egg will come when it comes.
The majority of eggs are laid in the morning but since it takes about 25 hours to make one once an ovum is released and the next won't be released for at least an hour after the prior egg is laid, there is no way for them all to come in the morning. They won't lay at night so every 26+ hours an egg will come except at night. Those that would normally come at night will come in the morning. That's why it seems like they come in the morning.

Stress of any kind will keep them from ovulating.

 

[helorugger]

Thanks Chicken Canoe. Since everything seems linked to light, I didn't know if there was something I was missing.

 

[SampyArctica]

Yep, agree with Chicken Canoe. You can't force your girls to lay at a certain time, and even if you could, you really shouldn't. We don't even have artificial light in our coop though, we prefer ours to lay naturally whenever their bodies feel ready. But assuming you don't have extreme temps in your area, you could leave the eggs in there for three weeks and they'd be fine. Eggs can keep for a surprisingly long time (months, in the right circumstances!). Unwashed eggs also last longer than washed ones.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

A lot is related to light. Increasing light will stimulate the onset of lay. 14 hours of light will give maximum output - to a point but it still takes over 24 hours to make one in most circumstances. So eventually some eggs will come at all hours of the day.