what clues are there to know when a chicken is going to start laying eggs

[missnu01]

Put in a fake whenever you want

 

[SixChickFlock]

Answering the original question...

The best most funnest clue is when you start finding eggs!!! I just had a late breakfast of three "laid today" eggs over easy. Yummmmy!

 

[Faraday40]

Let my worry be a lesson to you. First, I was worried about them laying in the first place. Then about blood, then about regularity. Well, my two girls who are both new layers (13 days for Janet, I believe 8 days for Penny) have laid eggs three days straight. And yesterday and today, both in the morning, giving us the nice picture below. Penny is definitely the early bird, but since I was home, I was able to see when Janet laid and she went into the nesting box about 10:00 and came down about 10:30.

Janet is the older, bigger girl, but her eggs are smaller (on the left. The white eggs are wooden). Janet's eggs are also darker. I've been told that you can tell the difference between the eggs of your different hens. I don't know if that will always be the case, but it certainly is so far. I hope it stays that way, so I can track them.

Glad to hear those eggs are coming. The way to figure out which eggs came from which hen is to keep checking the boxes often. If you see the hen in the box & 30 min later there's an egg in that box, BINGO. It took me a couple months to get everything correct. Some we know by color & others by their overall shape. My daughter was the one who had to teach me. She made a daily record chart & puts an X next to the hen's name for that day. Our highest hen had a 5 month streak of daily eggs. She just took a day off last week, so we'll have to start her count over. Eventually you'll even see an egg come out. (After laying in the nest, they stand up & squat a little. That's the time to watch. You'll see some pulsing at the vent & plop, the egg comes out. It's amazing!) Ours are extremely tame, so I'm guessing they don't mind.

 

[RockyRose]

Answering the original question...

The best most funnest clue is when you start finding eggs!!! I just had a late breakfast of three "laid today" eggs over easy. Yummmmy!

Eggsactly...just happened to me today too, found 3 eggs! One hen was in the box this AM, not sure yet if she is the only one laying, it's been raining here for 48 hrs so it's the first opportunity I had to really check. Now time to pay closer attention, yahoo!

 

[Grandmas Coop]

I have 4 Australorps that turned 19 weeks Fri. and 9 Buff Orphington that turned 16 weeks Fri. 12hens in all and 1 Rooster. Two weeks ago I set out 4 nesting boxes each with a fake egg. The nests are screwed together with nut & bolt. I may, not sure yet, make the entrances a bit bigger. The Australorps like to roll the eggs on the bottom out, I am not sure why. I haven't witnessed them doing this, so they either peck at them or are just placing them.?????????

 

[moms3cuties]

Is it normal for hens to be more friendly once they start laying? Ever since my RiR started laying she has been so much more friendly and easier to handle! Before I could hardly get near her!

I've got two double yolkers. Yesterday and today. It's my girl's second week of laying. The first double yolker looked like the yolks were actually conjoined, I was going to put them in the incubator, but I'm so glad I didn't!
dang...why didn't I take a picture!

I've heard this to be the case, and it's definitely been my experience.

My barred rock and my black Austaloph have both started laying eggs and they became more friendly right before they did buy a squatting for me each time they saw me! In Fact,,,they kept coming up to me more & more,, when they'd run from me when they were just pullets. So it is TRUE in most cases!!

 

[moms3cuties]

I have 4 Australorps that turned 19 weeks Fri. and 8 Buff Orphington that turned 16 weeks Fri. 12 hens in all. Two weeks ago I set out 4 nesting boxes each with a fake egg. The nests are screwed together with nut & bolt. I may, not sure yet, make the entrances a bit bigger. The Australorps like to roll the eggs on the bottom out, I am not sure why. I haven't witnessed them doing this, so they either peck at them or are just placing them.?????????

sometimes they're picky about where the eggs are. Other times they're trying to move them to different spot because they don't like him where you have them. But I say they are still a little young yet to lay.

 

[birdlady79]

I have 4 Australorps that turned 19 weeks Fri. and 9 Buff Orphington that turned 16 weeks Fri. 12hens in all and 1 Rooster. Two weeks ago I set out 4 nesting boxes each with a fake egg. The nests are screwed together with nut & bolt. I may, not sure yet, make the entrances a bit bigger. The Australorps like to roll the eggs on the bottom out, I am not sure why. I haven't witnessed them doing this, so they either peck at them or are just placing them.?????????

I put golf balls in my boxes, my BO is the only one laying so far... She kicked the fake eggs out a couple weeks bf she started laying... I put golf balls in there and she moves them when she gets ready to lay..... So I'm going to remove them now...

 

[subhanalah]

I put golf balls in my boxes, my BO is the only one laying so far... She kicked the fake eggs out a couple weeks bf she started laying... I put golf balls in there and she moves them when she gets ready to lay..... So I'm going to remove them now...

it's a good idea to keep art least one "nest egg" in the nest to prevent your girls from being compelled to find what they think is a more suitable nest area!

I've noticed my girl sits on the egg, almost like a birthing ball. Perhaps the nest egg is the chicken equivalent to reading a newspaper.

 

[Faraday40]

I used golf balls as well. I kept them in the nest boxes for the 1st 3-4 months of laying & never really had any issues with egg hiding. I took them out b/c of 2 reasons:
1. Visitors (always eager to gather eggs) would constantly bring them to me & ask about it.
2. Then my egg-eating thief of a dog got into the coop one day & ate one of the golf balls - along with the eggs of course. Technically, he chewed it up & only ate a small portion, but I decided an egg tummy-ache would be far less expensive than a vet visit to remove a golf ball. That Great Dane - Lab mix just cannot resist the smell of eggs.