Do all young hens start off laying small eggs?

[LawChick]

So, about how long does it take for a pullet to start laying regular sized eggs? I've gotten several smallish eggs from my hens in the last week or so, and I'm just wondering when I should expect them to lay the larger eggs.

 

[gordonburrito]

With our hens those that started earliest started with the smallest eggs. Our Easter Eggers, however, started much much later than the rest and when they did were pretty much producing full sized eggs right off the bat.

 

[Jeffross1968]

I have a related question....the youngin's that start laying small eggs...do they start laying at a good rate out of the box, just smallish for a while? Or are those first eggs not only small, but pretty random for a time? I have a brown leghorn that I purchased at an unknown age, but was told 8 months. It was either less than that, or a late starter. She has started laying small eggs, but in the last week, only 2. Is it normal to not start laying regularly as well?

 

[ChicKat]

Gail Damerow in Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens says that pullets eggs are their normal size by 30 weeks old. She also writes that pullets start irregularly -- for example 1 egg every 3 or 4 days.

My pullets are getting slightly larger eggs, and more frequent eggs--- and they have only been laying about a month. I imagine the size they started with would be the size 'small' in the grocery.

 

[Jeffross1968]

That's encouraging...thanks!

 

[JRchickchick]

I have raised chicks for the second year in a row. Last year's pullets began laying between 16 and 20 weeks, and while for maybe 2 weeks were small, they came up to size fairly fast. This year, I have similar varieties (Golden Sex Link, Black Sex Link, White Leghorn), and I am getting a dozen Peewee or smaller eggs each day! I will be glad when they come up to size, but they did begin laying earlier...15 weeks, and now they are 18 weeks old. At first I thought "fart" eggs, but they have yolks, most of them. Now I am making eggy dishes: eclairs, spaetzle, noodles, scrambles, trying to keep up until the eggs are big enough to sell!

 

[Tody 65]

My buff orphingtons just started laying they lay much bigger eggs than my others I only have seven and two or buffs

 

[vinegarfly]

Thank-you all for answering my daily chicken question. I found two tiny eggs in my coupe this morning and was realy hoping this wasn't the size that they would continually lay.

 

[Debraprs]

Well two of my five little production reds started laying today. We got two tiny perfectly formed brown eggs. Too cute. I accused hubby of robbing some songbirds nest. Looked more like banty hen eggs but they had yolks. My question is why did one of them have a brown nearly bloody looking sport when we have no roos?

 

[realsis]

One of my pullets just laid her first egg today. It was slightly smaller but only slightly. It was around the same size as my other pullets but just lacked a bit of roundness . it wasn't as full. Other than that it wasn't too tiny
Hope this helps