19 and a half weeks old and still no eggs :( egg countdown anyone??

[blondiebee181]

My girls are going to be 20 weeks in a few days (give or take). I am super excited for the first eggs to appear. I did put in some plastic "dummy" eggs in the nest boxes last weekend. Think that kinda freaked them out at first, but now I can tell they have been in there with the telltale feathers all over the place. My friend who gave me my chicks got her first egg last weekend, so I am hopeful my girls will get things going soon! I have one RIR, one Barred Rock, one Plymouth Barred Rock, 2 Buff Orphingtons and one Silver Laced Wyandotte. They are all beautiful happy girls and definitely have their own personalities!! I am new to chickens and NEVER thought they would be this much fun and that I would like them this much!!

Aren't they fun?! I thought the same thing, they are full of personality and character! It makes me sad when I think about all the poor production industry chickens who's lives are so awful and they are so horribly mistreated

They really are sweet little birds and you know? We domesticated them and forced them to rely on us as husbanders to take care of them, so how back-handed is it that humans can just turn around and treat them that way? Ugh, sorry I'm done being on my soap-box now

 

[Rhoise]

How often will new egg laying hens lay?

ChickenPerson here is my history from #1 egg to #10, in the past 13 days since the first egg. I hope this helps you see how erratic and bitter sweet this new laying can be. It took 6 days between the first and second egg, both were mushy soft, a couple broken ones, but things are speeding up and our little girls are starting to really ramp it up quickly. I have 9 pullets 4 at 19weeks4days, and 5 at 18w4d. I believe in less than two weeks since our first egg I now have possibly 4 girls laying 3 for sure of the older batch, and maybe one of the younger ones. As you've seen its been a rocky exciting experience starting with weird malformed and broken eggs but now settling in and we actually have 4 carton worthy eggs!!!! the cool white spots are bloom which is a healthy natural coating from happy spoiled hens

#1 was 8/04/12 soft shelled half formed on floor of coop (17 weeks 6 days old)
#2 was 8/10/12 dropped from the roost broke, soft mushy(18 weeks 5 days old)
#3 was 8/12/12 dropped from roost dented very thin shell(19 weeks old)
#4 was 8/14/12 layed in yard(secret hen's nest shhhh) a bit harder shell(19 weeks 2 days old)
#5,#6 were 8/15/12 1 in nest boxes 1 in yard nest 2 perfect eggs hard shells med/small size(19 w 3 d)
#7 #8 #9,#10 were 8/16/12 1 dropped from roost in am or last night, 2 in the yard nest perfect eggs, 1 shelless egg (yoke and white fell out of hen in yard) this evening after 7pm(19 w 4d)

 

[Rhoise]

My girls are going to be 20 weeks in a few days (give or take). I am super excited for the first eggs to appear. I did put in some plastic "dummy" eggs in the nest boxes last weekend. Think that kinda freaked them out at first, but now I can tell they have been in there with the telltale feathers all over the place. My friend who gave me my chicks got her first egg last weekend, so I am hopeful my girls will get things going soon! I have one RIR, one Barred Rock, one Plymouth Barred Rock, 2 Buff Orphingtons and one Silver Laced Wyandotte. They are all beautiful happy girls and definitely have their own personalities!! I am new to chickens and NEVER thought they would be this much fun and that I would like them this much!!

This is great! Glad your enjoying you hens you are so close!!! I thought the day would never arrive and now my girls are on fire!

 

[Rhoise]

Our first egg.... So pretty.
Almost sad I am gonna eat it in the morning....
BaHaHA HA (evil Laugh)

HAHAHAHHA you waited???? Mine was frying in butter within 10 mins of it exiting the poor hen BaHaHAHAHA WOW!!! LOOK AT THE pretty Bloom all over it!! CONGRATS!!

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

Wlrabbitry that is a beautiful egg! It looks like it was carved from stone. Who laid that?

 

[wlrabbitry]

Wlrabbitry that is a beautiful egg! It looks like it was carved from stone. Who laid that?

LOL I have no Clue... I have a wyandott 2 red pullets and a RIR that are due to lay... I think it is the light colored red pullet. But gonna keep an eye on them.

 

[FirewifeJess]

We got our first double yolker egg last night! From a pullet who just started laying less than 5 days ago! All the eggs we've gotten have been peewee, but that one was a large on the scale. Pretty awesome!

 

[blondiebee181]

I got a AAA from my Daisy yesterday, mom soft-boiled it this morning

 

[PoultryGirly]

Got two eggs today!!! One small brown egg and one pretty good-sized green egg. And guess what...They were layed in the nesting boxes! You know what that means??? Two of my chickens are laying!!!!!!!! YAY!

 

[bruceha2000]

Aren't they fun?! I thought the same thing, they are full of personality and character! It makes me sad when I think about all the poor production industry chickens who's lives are so awful and they are so horribly mistreated

I hear you. Never thought the factory egg layers had a good life but seeing my 12 eight week old chickens waiting at the door to their coop in the morning and running all over each other to get out shows just how much they DO need and LIKE to move around and get a change of scenery, even if it is the same every day. And that is just to get to the indoor run which is actually a bit smaller than the coop. They do the same thing to get to the outside - once they finally got brave enough to GO outside

.

They aren't tight for space in their coop. I could put 24 in there and still be above the 'recommended allowance' by 25%. They have over 3 times the recommended roosting space, 70% of it all at the higher 4' level so they can ALL by high no matter where they end up in the pecking order.