When do chickens lay?

[nwinning]

I have one hen that just started laying and she lays between 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm every day.

 

[whitt910]

It depends, sometimes I go in around 8 AM and will have an egg, but most of the time they lay in the afternoon. I collect eggs around 2:00 PM because that is when I get home from work and that's when I have most eggs and then when I close them up at night I'll have one or two more eggs. Every chicken is different.

 

[GAFarmGirl87]

I have 8 hens which are about 7 months old. When they first started laying, I was getting eggs at all times of the day. Now they are getting on their cycle & it's a little more predictable. I check for eggs 2-3 times a day. Every other day, I'll have the majority of my eggs laid by 1pm, the other days, I'll get 1 or 2 eggs in the morning, and the rest in the evening. They always lay their eggs before 6pm though, & I hardly ever have an egg before 10 or 11 in the morning.

I think there may be many factors that determine what time they lay, like Location, weather, daylight hours, breed, & age.

One thing I've noticed is on days when we get afternoon storms, I've got all my eggs laid by about 1 or 2 pm. It's like they know there's a storm coming. And on dreary days I'm lucky to get any eggs at all.

Just my 2 cents

 

[ginnychick]

Our thee girls just started laying a couple of weeks ago . We have a Barred Rock (Cookie), a Black Australorp (Ozzie) and Rhode Island Red (Ginger). They started laying around 23 weeks. I start getting an egg starting around 7 am. They are starting to get in sync. One laying around 1/2 hour after the other.

Funny thing is that they are supposed to have 25 hour cycles, which means that they should be laying around 1 hour later each day. This does not seem to be happening with ours. They have layed as late as 10-11 am or so, but then instead of finding the next egg an hour later next day, they started laying really early around 7 am.

 

[TERRY4]

Our thee girls just started laying a couple of weeks ago . We have a Barred Rock (Cookie), a Black Australorp (Ozzie) and Rhode Island Red (Ginger).

A few weeks back they would go in the coop and sit for a while, rearranging the shavings, etc. and no eggs, this went on for a few days. Finally, the Black Australorp started to do a lot of scratching and was in there for over an hour - finally the fist egg! Around 23 weeks. She was laying for over a week before the others began to lay. So it could take a few days.....

I am posting a picture (will start a new thread) of the three eggs for comparison, for others that are "expecting their new eggs". BTW, wait til you hear them do their Egg Song - it is hysterical! We live on a Reservoir and were in our canoe fishing over the weekend, we were able to hear one of them doing their 'song' all the way from the water. We think it was when the RIR laying the Jumbo egg (it was huge) - I don't blame her, I think I would have squawked too

One of our girls is a RIR. Can't wait to see her egg{s}. Not sure if she has layed or not though. There was a rubbery egg the other day, on the coop floor, not in a nest.

 

[ginnychick]

We too had a rubbery or sort of not fully formed egg one of the days. Has not happened since. I wanted to post a pic of three eggs laid o one day, to show you for comparison, but can't figure out how. Says I am not allowed to add an attachment when I try to attach the pic. Could someone enlighten me on how to post a pic?!

 

[Chickenwolf]

I

Holy Cow!!! 20?  That's allot.  I should have gotten more hens when I first got them.  But this is my first "flock" so I'm still new at this.

I worked up to this ammount
You can work up gradually like I did
The disadvantage is that you have to keep integrating them
Which could upset the pecking order

If you do choose this way make sure you can choose the chicks
online usually has a option for female chicks
And if you are getting them at a store you should make sure that you can pick out the chicks
Feather sexing is a good way to figure out the gender
Female chicks have feather stubs all the same length
And male chicks have feather stubs all different lengths
This only works for a chick a couple days old
I hope this helps

 

[PastorLarry]

first egg today at 2:30

 

[Chickenwolf]

Good for you
I am hopeful that more of your hens will start laying soon

 

[Dawna]

My girls usually lay their eggs by about 1 in the afternoon. Once I found three hens all trying to sit in the same nest. I have 6 nest boxes, but they all seem to prefer one or two of them. And I use golf balls in them to hopefully give them the picture of what goes in the nest. Also, once in awhile a snake gets in to the nests and hopefully swallows a golf ball instead of an egg. I don't dislike snakes, I just don't like them eating my eggs!!! I have 1 RIR, 1 BPR, (3 yrs old), 3 SLW (2 yrs old) and 4 Buff Orpingtons. The Buff's are new this year. I've been keeping track of who lays an egg. It's interesting to see the difference.