At what age did your chickens lay?

[Artichoke Lover]

Is that a Maran in your profile pic?

Nope, Barred Rock. I do want some Marans one day though!

 

[Idaho Chicken Bungalow]

Maybe it's just submission?

Do they still do it if you don't have a roo?

 

[Idaho Chicken Bungalow]

Nope, Barred Rock. I do want some Marans one day though!

I have three Golden Cuckoos, sweet as can be.

 

[Idaho Chicken Bungalow]

I just started a thread because I have a 17 month old hen I think is just laying her first eggs. That's right, 17 MONTHS. She is a Black Australorp. I have several, so I don't know which one it is. (Do I win a prize? )

Yes you do....WOW.

 

[Outta Here]

When I close them at night, I make sure they are open very early in the morning, so nobody gets shut out and confused. I had one on the nest laying at 5:30 this morning!

Actually, I turn on their lights and clean my sand-bedded coop at 4 am, and often they get in the nest boxes and start laying that early! I get ten eggs by 8 or 9 am!

P.S. Lest you think I'm crazy, I'm a very early riser and am glad to have something to do. My small sand-bedded sleeping/laying coop takes just 5 minutes to rake and sift all the poop out and wipe down all the white roosts. I can get it clean as my kitchen in minutes (the surfaces--I don't actually have sand on my kitchen floor!) I don't even have to enter the coop but do it all barefoot in my pj's before coffee!

I just flip the lights to wake them up.....

then open the lid.... the two in the foreground are roosting on portable roosts I remove every morning. I just brush the poops onto the floor and wet wipe the platform, ready for egg laying.

I pet all the chickens on their roost (this picture was taken when they were much younger). They hop from roost to half wall for pets.

Then when they go outside to the larger lighted exterior coop, waiting for sunup to free range all day...

I lean over the half wall and rake the poop onto a pooper scooper screen....

Or sometimes open the wall and dustpan the pile onto a flat screen....

Poop-free, wiped clean, and ready for eggs in 5 minutes. But even then, sometimes one or two will beat me to it and climb into the nest, eager to do their job!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Actually, I turn on their lights and clean my sand-bedded coop at 4 am, and often they get in the nest boxes and start laying that early! I have 10 eggs from 12 girls by 7 am! Soon as my Biele babies start laying, we'll have 12 eggs on full days!

P.S. Lest you think I'm crazy, I'm a very early riser and am glad to have something to do. My small sand-bedded sleeping/laying coop takes just 5 minutes to rake and sift all the poop out and wipe down all the white roosts. I can get it clean as my kitchen in minutes (the surfaces--I don't actually have sand on my kitchen floor!) I don't even have to enter the coop but do it all barefoot in my pj's before coffee!

I just flip the lights to wake them up.....
View attachment 2854021
then open the lid.... the two in the foreground are roosting on portable roosts I remove every morning. I just brush the poops onto the floor and wet wipe the platform, ready for egg laying.
View attachment 2854023
I pet all the chickens on their roost (this picture was taken when they were much younger). They hop from roost to half wall for pets.
View attachment 2854022

Then when they go outside to the larger lighted exterior coop, waiting for sunup to free range all day...
View attachment 2854053

I lean over the half wall and rake the poop onto a pooper scooper screen....
View attachment 2854018
Or sometimes open the wall and dustpan the pile onto a flat screen....
View attachment 2854019
Poop-free, wiped clean, and ready for eggs in 5 minutes. But even then, sometimes one or two will beat me to it and climb into the nest, eager to do their job!
View attachment 2854020

View attachment 2854025

That's beautiful, Veelee! Remind me never to let you see my setup!

 

[Outta Here]

That's beautiful, Veelee! Remind me never to let you see my setup!

Ha-ha! Believe me, in my 45 years of raising chickens, I've housed them in the traditional deep-bedded pens with petrified poop crusted roosts! It's only this last batch that got to sleep and lay in a pristine coop with clean white decor--and only because of the design, the fact that they free range and only sleep and lay there, and my switch to sand. My family teases me that it's the cleanest chicken pen on the planet.
But my outside coop roost and walls never get wiped down; and the dirt/straw only gets raked once or twice a month because I have to don knee pads and crawl to do it!

And then of course, they have the whole wide world (well, at least our 80 acres) to poop all over as they free range all day!

 

[GigitheBackyardHerbilist]

Good morning! I was wondering when did everyone’s girls start to lay? I have two Rhode island reds, two prairie bluebell easter eggers, and two light bramahas that are 16 weeks and I have a buff orpington, white leghorn, and americana easter egger that are 8 weeks. This is my first personal flock. What was your experience with these breeds?

Mine are 5 months and just started laying! I've had 2 eggs in 3 days.
We have 8 chicks
2 each of
Sapphire gems, Lavender Orpingtons Americana Easter eggers and Black Australops.
The sapphire Gem laid one this morning. We don't know who laid the first egg.

 

[Outta Here]

Mine are 5 months and just started laying! I've had 2 eggs in 3 days.
We have 8 chicks
2 each of
Sapphire gems, Lavender Orpingtons Americana Easter eggers and Black Australops.
The sapphire Gem laid one this morning. We don't know who laid the first egg.

To know who laid what, I've learned to identify the color and size of each of my pullet's eggs in case I don't catch them on the nest. I'm charting my pullet's production for their first year, just for interest sake.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Why, thank you for asking! Four each of Cuckoo Marans and Whiting True Blues, three Bielefelders, two Speckled Sussex, an Ameraucana and a Black Australorp! You?

6 gold laced wyanettes!