Average laying age for Easter Eggers?

[islandgirl82]

I began raising hens a few years ago; my starter flock consisted of four americanas but only two outwitted the fox long enough to reach laying age and I was just so thrilled to have them that I didn't pay much attention to the ages they started laying. What I did notice is one was laying for about two months before the second hen began laying. When I was down to a solitary hen (and a few ducks) I took in a neighbor's unwanted americana roo followed by two rescue hens; a silver laced Wyandotte and a crippled barred rock. Sadly I lost my beautiful roo and sweet barred rock along with all my ducks to a predator so only my Americana and SLW remained until May of this year. I added two Easter Egger pullets and a Golden Spangled Hamburg, all of whom are approximately 18 weeks old now. I've been reading up on the average age EE's will begin to lay and everywhere I look seems to have a different answer. Some say 18-20 weeks and others are saying anywhere from 7 months to a year and everywhere in between.

I know they're not quite ready...their tails haven't fully grown out yet (although one is a little more so than the other) and only one of the two seems to have a comb that has just begun swelling but it hasn't started darkening yet.

Any reliable sources and/or first hand experiences are much appreciated.

 

[Judy]

My EE's started around 26 weeks, and I've read of a similar time frame for others' EE's. I know of an
Ameraucana who did not lay til over one year, but that is unusual, and much more likely to occur in breeder birds than hatchery birds. 18-20 weeks is a probably an average for mot standard fowl hatchery birds, such as Barred
Rock.

 

[islandgirl82]

Thank you! General consensus seems to be that EE's mature later than other breeds and it's very obvious looking at them vs. my Hamburg...other than her comb darkening I'm pretty sure she's within a week or two. Thinking back on my original girls...I'm pretty sure the first started laying around 5 months and the second somewhere around 7 months. Other than being uncertain of where my two rescue hens came from originally, all my chickens have come from small local farms and I've raised them on pasture and organic feed. They've always been very healthy and my older girls have had consistently short molting periods so I haven't had to wait long for them to start laying again.

I wonder if that late blooming EE you mentioned was more stressed than just not mature. This spring I had somewhat failed attempt at keeping a roo. Despite my efforts to get him to warm up to humans and my girls wanting to be with people all the time, he would constantly chase them away from me and sometimes out into the road. They did stop laying for a period of time due to the stress so he was rehomed and they immediately started laying again. In fact, the day after I brought him to his new home, we got our first egg that I took to my son's kindergarten class and exactly 21 days later we had our very own homegrown SLW/EE peep!

 

[aart]

EE's are a crap shoot because you rarely know what breed they were crossed with.
Ameraucana's might at about 18-20 weeks, but the cross bird might mature later.
There could also be multiple mixes in their background genes.

 

[islandgirl82]

Thank you! I'd begun looking around the run for eggs but now I think I've started my search a little too soon. Unfortunately, my two older girls haven't taken too kindly to having the younger girls move in and like to chase them out of the hen house which is why I've been including the run in my egg hunts. They seem to be nearing indifference though.

 

[10xmama]

My EEs were quite early. One began laying at 16w5d. The others were between 18-20.