Hi, I've had 5 chickens for 5 weeks now and so far no eggs......we're waiting impatiently. My husband more impatiently than the rest of us. They are all between about 18 and 20 weeks now so I figure they can't be far away from laying. My local feed and seed store gave me a couple of dummy eggs to put in the nesting boxes to encourage them but so far all they do is stay as far away from the plastic eggs as possible. I wondered if maybe mixed breeds are slower to lay than pure breeds......? Cheers:cd
If they are sex links they should start to lay as early as 17 weeks but most will start around 20 to 22 weeks.It maybe just the weather and now that the daylight hours are getting longer they should start up soon.
They all lay when they are ready, and not a moment before! I cannot imagine it has to do with pure bred vs mixed breeds, it has more to do with each hen being an individual and maturing at her own rate. Fake eggs help them know where to lay but will not induce them to lay one second before there internal clock tells them to. Good luck!
Thanks for your help. The daylight hours are actually getting shorter here. We are in Autumn at the moment so they may take a bit longer? It doesn't get really cold here. Lowest temp at night in the middle of winter is only about 5% Celcius and the warmest temp in the day gets up to about 10% Celcius in the afternoon in winter. It's a great place down here in the South Pacific!! Cheers for your help, I'll let you know when my pretty girls have their first eggs.
If they are about point of lay and its getting shorter and shorter in season... let's just hope they don't wait till spring! They should lay between 20-24, mixed or not. Some mixed breeds, were bred for egg laying so it's genetics of particular lines rather than breed per se. Some breeds wait till 7-8months!