Anxious about soon-to-be egglayers

[SelfSufficientMe]

My girls are almost 19 weeks. Watching for signs of laying. Aside from the red combs and wattles, nothing yet. No squatting. Ready for some eggs. I just hope they lay better than my buff orphingtons. Still only two eggs every other day from two of the four hens. This chicken feed bill is killing me with no eggs to make up for it

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Watched pots and watched pullets...just sayin'

They'll lay...20 to 24 weeks is often normal depending on breed or hybrid.

If you have 4 hens, you should be getting about 3 eggs a day to begin with once all start laying (first year)...depending on breed or hybrid. Sometimes the most you can hope for is 50% laying any given time, especially as they age.

But I think you just need to be patient. They'll get there.

LofMc

 

[SelfSufficientMe]

Watched pots and watched pullets...just sayin'

They'll lay...20 to 24 weeks is often normal depending on breed or hybrid.

If you have 4 hens, you should be getting about 3 eggs a day to begin with once all start laying (first year)...depending on breed or hybrid. Sometimes the most you can hope for is 50% laying any given time, especially as they age.

But I think you just need to be patient. They'll get there.

LofMc

I agree. It’s a good anxious I guess. Exciting.

The ones laying already are one year plus. They hatched last spring. Buffs I don’t think lay all that great.

Going through at least 100# of chicken feed a month between 12 chickens and only getting maybe 6 eggs a week. That’s the disappointing part. I swear they’ve almost killed two 50# bags in less than three weeks this go around.

I let them out for about three hours each evening to forage and eat out of my garden. My newbies are cream legbars, welsummers, gold laced wyandottes, starlights, and two mix breed OEGB.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I think that's too much feed. I go through less than 100 pounds in one month for 24 birds.

Check for rodent pilfering. Rats and squirrels can definitely put a dent in feed.

LofMc

 

[SelfSufficientMe]

I think that's too much feed. I go through less than 100 pounds in one month for 24 birds.

Check for rodent pilfering. Rats and squirrels can definitely put a dent in feed.

LofMc

That’s a definite. I see squirrels often. And crows. Never thought they ate enough to make such a difference but apparently so. Ty. Going to have to proof the feed somehow.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I agree that's too much feed. What kind of feeders do you have?

 

[Mrs. K]

I agree - too much feed. Do you have 24 hour feeders? Might need to seal them up at night.

 

[SelfSufficientMe]

I agree that's too much feed. What kind of feeders do you have?

I’ve had three pans in three locations so that the young chickens weren’t run off by the older girls. I put four scoops of feed out in the morning between the three. It’s always gone by the time I get home from work.

There hasn’t been feed out at night until this past weekend. I build a trough feeder out of a gutter. It got a little wet and they oddly didn’t eat it all. I keep hoping they will. I plan on fixing that issue over the weekend. They usually love wet food

Tried making my feeding/watering routine simpler and made some modifications to the run as well. Feed is covered under a roof but water is running into the trough. I imagine less birds Should see the feed now and in future due to the roof.

Squirrels are around regardless. I see them in the run all of the time. I kindof like the crows being around bc I think it helps with hawks but I could be wrong. Either way, I don’t like feeding them.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Pans? Thats your problem. They will scratch out what they don't eat even if the squirrels and wild birds and other varmits don't eat it right out of the pan they will be attracted to the mess on the ground. I have something like this and it has helped a ton:

 

[jreardon1918]

We keep track of number of chicks/pullets/hens. We also track feed. That let's us know if anything changes. When we had 7 hens, we went through 50 pounds of layer pellets about once per month. Currently we have six 16 week old pullets and two hens. They are going through 50 pounds of grower per month. Here is a picture of how we store and track. A 50
pound bag fits in two 5 gallon buckets. The girls do not get out of the secure run. Since our most recent hawk and owl attacks. They eat just the grower and a very occasional treat. That is mostly dinner scraps. Our feeder is pretty close to zero waste. Especially when we are feeding pellets. There is always a small feeder that contains grit and oyster shell.