1st eggs info helpful for us waiting

[tuesdays chicks]

hey you fortunate people getting your 1st eggs I am so excited for you guys but everytime I read your excitement I say darn they didnt say what breed or the age. those of us waiting would get a little hope or not by knowing this info. my girls free range and though I still think they have about another month dont want someone laying in a hedge while im not looking.

 

[briteday]

With free-ranging chickens you are going to hope that they come back to the coop/nest to lay their eggs. That being said...hybrids (red/black sexlinks, gold stars, red stars, etc) usually lay the earliest at 18-22 weeks. Breeds that are considered to be prolific egglayers (RIR, barred rocks, Easter eggers, delawares, leghorns) will generally start laying at 22-26 weeks. The less prolific egglayers and bantams may start much later. Our silkies and other bantam breeds often do not start laying until 6-8 months of age...24-30+ weeks.

 

[tuesdays chicks]

thankyou thats very informative, any idea about campine and andalusian?someone told me their andalusian was 20 weeks and still not laying

 

[tcbosco1]

When my pullets were about to lay eggs they would "squat" when someone approached them.

Once a pullet would start "squatting", eggs came about a week or two later!

I don't know if this is the case for everyone, but it was for my RIR, Dominiques, Barred Plymouth Rock and Silkie Bantam. I haven't read about this behavior anywhere, but it seems to be consistant for my girls. In fact, my silkie goes broody every few weeks and stops squatting when she's not laying eggs and starts squatting again right before she begins to squeeze out eggs again! Same deal with the others after their moult.

I do have one that's stopped laying eggs completely (don't know why) and she hasn't "squatted" since she laid her last egg in April.


Anyway, its something to look for while you're waiting! : )

 

[tuesdays chicks]

thanks for the squatter info

 

[Chickenmaiden]

I have 9 red sexlink hens who were brought home the first of April at a range of 3 to 7 days of age. As I was attending to their fence yesterday I found a beautiful little brown egg. My girls of the same breed from last year did not start laying until mid August. Has anyone else had this happen so early?

 

[JustMandy]

Thanks for this. I'd heard 16 weeks somewhere as an average and was really starting to worry about us not getting eggs! (They are 20+ weeks EEs and RSL.) Now I can dial down my egg hunting worries from "OMG, I have defective chickens!" to "OMG, I can't wait that long!"

 

[tuesdays chicks]

Quote:

 

[greeneggsnham]

I just got my first three eggs this morning and my oldest are only 18weeks old. I have a mix so I don't know who laid them.

ETA: Went out and found a fourth egg and this one is blue. I don't understand this one because my Americana's and EE's are only 17 weeks old. I guess they are competing or something.

 

[sandiatonimarie]

My flock of 8 is all wyandottes, got first egg from one of the hens at esactly 20 weeks. This is supposed to be about 4 weeks early for wyandottes. And the other wyandottes have not started laying yet so I've gotten one lovely brown egg every day since July 5th.