When do chickens start laying eggs?

[Waveron]

Okay, I have been serching the forum for an answer to this question and I haven't found it yet although I'm sure it has been asked before. I thought it would be faster to just asked it again. Sorry if this is repetive to you seasoned chicken folk out there.
I have 2 White rocks, 1 Black australorps, 1 silver spangled hamburg, 1 partridge rock, 1 white crested black polish, 1 RIR, and 1 dark cornish hens. They are all 19 weeks old, and I want to know when will they start laying eggs? I really want to try that first egg!

 

[ibpboo]

usually somewhere around 6 months

 

[Wynette]

Annoyingly, they start....when they are ready. I'd say an average is about 6 months. I've had two that started well after 8 months, BUT, they both lay Jumbo-sized eggs, so it was worth the wait!

You can watch for their combs to begin getting very red; when that starts, you won't have long to wait. I assume you have them on layer feed and oyster shell?

 

[Waveron]

Annoyingly, they start....when they are ready. I'd say an average is about 6 months. I've had two that started well after 8 months, BUT, they both lay Jumbo-sized eggs, so it was worth the wait!

You can watch for their combs to begin getting very red; when that starts, you won't have long to wait. I assume you have them on layer feed and oyster shell?
************************************************************

I have them on all of that yes, even the rooster loves the oyster shell and crushed egg shell I've been giving them. I've noticed that someone has been arranging the nest box, so I am hoping that it will be soon.

 

[Wynette]

You're doing everything you can - just try (I know it's SO difficult!) to be patient! It's so exciting when you get the very first one - but to be honest, it's still the very favorite part of my day (collecting eggs). Try to stay busy - that's what I did when they were getting close to laying. I got to where I was checking nest boxes 10 times a day, and was just getting more frustrated as the time went by. Then, when I started only checking once a day, it seemed to by much faster! Good luck with your wait, and make sure you take a picture & post your egg in the "first egg" that's stickied in the Chicken Behaviors and Egglaying section!!

 

[AllChookUp]

Wynette wrote:
"Try to stay busy"

LOL!!!!
That's NEVER a problem!​

 

[Wynette]

True, AllChookUp! But, you know how it is when waiting for your very first egg! Seems like all you want to do is camp out beside the nest boxes! Heck, I was even DREAMING of my first egg - how pathetic is THAT!?! Then, DH played a cruel joke. when I got my first egg, I ran to the house to show him, and he said, "Oh, I put that in there." SOOOOO not funny!

 

[Waveron]

Quote:
LOL!!!!
That's NEVER a problem!

No kidding! I have chickens, fish, a three year old, a husband and a job. Of course, I'm not sure who takes the most time, the husband or my daughter.

 

[Wynette]

Well, husbands ARE sort of like children sometimes....

 

[18kronesk]

I have 5 chicks there 13 weeks old know

and they should be laying in the fall . So chicks start to lay in like six or seven months. After they hatcht.