You finally got chickens!! You’ve watched them grow from fluffy little chicks to beautiful large hens!
One day you wake up and look at the calendar and realize....its time!!! Its time for my girls to start laying!! You’re so excited, you have been waiting for this day for months! You run out to the nesting box....nothing! You check ten times a day for the next two weeks and still NOTHING! You’re beginning to think you will never get eggs and that your hens are defective. Why arent they laying? They are at the age when they are supposed to start! You ask yourself “What’s wrong with them?” “Did I do something wrong?” “Are they not eating the right food?”
This is what happened to me...i asked myself all those questions.....then finally one day I had an egg! A beautiful brown teeny tiny egg! I didnt care that it was small...it was an egg, my very first egg!! I was so excited I made a big deal about it, called everyone in my family, took pictures and posted about it on social media!!! Ive been waiting for this day for months and I wanted everyone to see it!! I was so proud of my first egg!!!
There are some signs that Hens show before they start laying. These signs can appear a few weeks before or just a few days before the first egg.
One main sign is “squatting”. This is what your Hen will do when you bend down to pet her. She will go into a squatting position, as hens do when the Rooster is ready to mate. I noticed this behavior a week before I got my first egg.
Another sign that I noticed was her Waddles and Comb were larger and had become bright red. Take note to the pictures. The first picture is of one of my girls who has been laying and the second picture is one who has yet to lay any eggs. Check out the difference in the size of the waddles and combs.
Remember that these are not the only signs! Some people say that their hens sing the “Egg Laying Song”, Im not sure if I’ve ever heard any of my girls do this, but thats because they are noisy all the time!
If you see your Hens showing any of these signs, your eggs should be coming soon! For the first few weeks i was only getting eggs every 2-3 days, then after that I was getting eggs everyday! You also have to take into consideration the breed. Some breeds can start laying as early as 16 weeks and some can take up to 6 months or even longer to lay their first egg.
Remember, if you happen to see your Hen in a nesting box, let her be! Dont stand there and stare at her. That can cause stress and stress will delay the laying process. Come back a few hours later when she is gone and check for eggs. Do not try and stimulate them to lay eggs as this can cause harm to the hen.
You first few eggs will be on the smaller side. Once they are laying for a while the eggs will get larger in size and if your lucky, you may even get some with double yolks!
The biggest thing to remember when raising Chickens to lay eggs is BE PATIENT and let nature take its course!
One day you wake up and look at the calendar and realize....its time!!! Its time for my girls to start laying!! You’re so excited, you have been waiting for this day for months! You run out to the nesting box....nothing! You check ten times a day for the next two weeks and still NOTHING! You’re beginning to think you will never get eggs and that your hens are defective. Why arent they laying? They are at the age when they are supposed to start! You ask yourself “What’s wrong with them?” “Did I do something wrong?” “Are they not eating the right food?”
This is what happened to me...i asked myself all those questions.....then finally one day I had an egg! A beautiful brown teeny tiny egg! I didnt care that it was small...it was an egg, my very first egg!! I was so excited I made a big deal about it, called everyone in my family, took pictures and posted about it on social media!!! Ive been waiting for this day for months and I wanted everyone to see it!! I was so proud of my first egg!!!
There are some signs that Hens show before they start laying. These signs can appear a few weeks before or just a few days before the first egg.
One main sign is “squatting”. This is what your Hen will do when you bend down to pet her. She will go into a squatting position, as hens do when the Rooster is ready to mate. I noticed this behavior a week before I got my first egg.
Another sign that I noticed was her Waddles and Comb were larger and had become bright red. Take note to the pictures. The first picture is of one of my girls who has been laying and the second picture is one who has yet to lay any eggs. Check out the difference in the size of the waddles and combs.
Remember that these are not the only signs! Some people say that their hens sing the “Egg Laying Song”, Im not sure if I’ve ever heard any of my girls do this, but thats because they are noisy all the time!
If you see your Hens showing any of these signs, your eggs should be coming soon! For the first few weeks i was only getting eggs every 2-3 days, then after that I was getting eggs everyday! You also have to take into consideration the breed. Some breeds can start laying as early as 16 weeks and some can take up to 6 months or even longer to lay their first egg.
Remember, if you happen to see your Hen in a nesting box, let her be! Dont stand there and stare at her. That can cause stress and stress will delay the laying process. Come back a few hours later when she is gone and check for eggs. Do not try and stimulate them to lay eggs as this can cause harm to the hen.
You first few eggs will be on the smaller side. Once they are laying for a while the eggs will get larger in size and if your lucky, you may even get some with double yolks!
The biggest thing to remember when raising Chickens to lay eggs is BE PATIENT and let nature take its course!
