8 hens, 1 rooster all raised by me this Spring and I get one egg a day

[dbolman]

Lets see how many posts are there about egg laying?????

Well what can I say I am frustrated. I am thinking of quiting and starting totally over this Spring. Dumb feathered friends anyway. They have the best life of any chickens I know so where is their gratitude!!

Tracy
Berner Lover

 

[cap1717]

Do not give up hope! Only ONE of my girls started laying (at 24 weeks) before last week. . . finally (@26 weeks, another started, I went home yesterday to find 3 eggs in the nest box. . . .only one more left to wait for, and she is a bit younger than the others!

 

[rhoda_bruce]

19 RIRs at 29 weeks, 23 RIRs at 21 weeks, 3 EEs at 25 weeks =s 5 eggs a day
Thats 45 pullets old enough to lay eggs, and a handful which I didn't mention and 2 RIR roos at 21 weeks. Total is 66 chickens in all. That magic age of 20 weeks is just for the perfect birds that live to please you. They won't all be early bloomers.

 

[RM44]

2 RIRs that are 7 months old, raised by me since 3 months old.
1 RIR and 1 Black Australorp 6 months old, raised by me since 2 months old.
1 RIR and 1 Dominique I aquired last week that are supposedly 8 months old.

Only 1 of the 7 month old RIRs is laying, and she just started 2 days ago (Tuesday). The other 7 month old RIR is doing the squat, but no eggs yet. the two 6 month olds aren't even squatting, and the 2 supposed 8 month olds aren't squatting either.

You are going to be just fine. Just be patient. I have heard that the older they are when they start laying, the fewer problems they tend to have. My 7 month old has laid an egg every day for 3 days now (since she started laying), and the first one was the size of a "medium" store bought egg. Today's egg is the size of a large store bought egg. I am thrilled and glad that I didn't give up on my girls. Hang in there!

 

[Julie_A]

Stick it out Dbolman! I did that last year. raised beautiful buffs but wasn't patient enough to stick with it. sold them all and said FORGET IT!

Here I am a year later with who knows how many chickens and getting 10 eggs a day!

 

[mamagardener]

how old are the chickens? What kind are they? Do they free range at all?
I thought some of mine weren't laying yet, and I was getting frustrated. Out
of 8 chickens I was only getting 3 from my cinnamon queens for the longest
time. I would let them out to free range in the afternoon thinking they would
have already laid. Imagine my surprise when I discovered one laying an egg
in my yard. They had made a nest and there were already 18 eggs in it. When
I took those eggs away, they made another one somewhere else. It took me a
while to get them to lay in the coop. Sometimes I swear they are still doing it.
Yesterday I didn't get any eggs at all. Today so far I have gotten 3.

 

[feathersnuggles]

Quote:
Wow, interesting to know! My first layer was 19 weeks old when she laid, and she has had the most trouble with shell-less or partial shelled eggs, or fragile, weird wrinkled eggs. And recently, she's hit another "dry spell" with no eggs again. The other girls laid at much later ages, and haven't had ANY hiccups in their egg-laying since DAY 1.