Chicken laying

[MomoSnell]

My husband says a hen will not lay every day. I argued with him and said they will lay every 24-26 hours unless they are in a molt, sickness, stress, or shorter days & cooler weather. His granny had chickens and she raised them. Is he right?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Hi. Depends on the breed. Leghorns are known to lay pretty much every day during their laying years, but some hens may only lay two or three eggs a week, and there are other breeds that lay somewhere in between those extremes.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

molt, sickness, stress, or shorter days & cooler weather

You are right about most of this but in my experience it's the shorter days and not the cold temps of winter that affect laying. I give my girls a little extra light in winter and laying does pick up, regardless of temps. I may have to gather eggs often to keep them from freezing!

 

[DemeterAD9]

You are both correct for the most part. Depending on the breed and line of said breed, production birds like leghorns, Isa browns and whatnot will lay nearly every day but take a break here or there. I have a leghorn pullet who started laying early September and she has only skipped 3 days since then. And then I’ve got a mutt OE who started around the same time and she has skipped 17 days, granted we are getting towards the shorter day now so my usual daily collection of eggs went from 24ish to about 15-18 a day.

IME larger breeds lay less, my brahmas have been known to skip a couple days at a time even when they were pullets. The average backyard hen will lay 4-6 eggs a week if all their needs are met, this includes lighting as well. The more ornamental breeds lay less, as do show birds who are raised more for body size and of course looks. The older they get the fewer eggs they lay, I’m starting to see this in my 2nd laying cycle girls and plan to start phasing most of them out next year by replacing them with their daughters.

 

[Ridgerunner]

My husband says a hen will not lay every day. I argued with him and said they will lay every 24-26 hours unless they are in a molt, sickness, stress, or shorter days & cooler weather. His granny had chickens and she raised them. Is he right?

He is right.

I'll link Henderson's breed chart. It shows, on average, how many eggs a breed would be expected to lay. This is an average, some will ay more, some less. These averages are for the heritage chickens, not necessarily what you get from hatcheries. Hatchery chickens from the hatcheries we get most of our chickens from are bred to lay above average.

http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html

Some lay only 2 or 3 times a week. Some lay almost every day. Your mention of 24-26 hours comes into play with the ones that lay almost every day. On average it takes about 25 hours for a hen to make an egg in her internal egg making factory. Some longer, some shorter. There are certain triggers that tell a hen when to release a yolk to start that process. One trigger is when she lays her egg. So many hens lay an egg a day but at a later time each day. Other triggers tell her when not to release a yolk to prevent the egg from being laid at night when she is on the roost. What often happens when a hen is laying an egg every 25 hours is that when it gets too late in the day she skips a day to get back on the daylight track.

This does not take into consideration a molt, sickness, stress, or shorter days & cooler weather. Or broody hens. Or other "special" circumstances. Just normal hens in normal circumstances.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

My husband says a hen will not lay every day. I argued with him and said they will lay every 24-26 hours unless they are in a molt, sickness, stress, or shorter days & cooler weather. His granny had chickens and she raised them. Is he right?

They CAN lay every 24-26 hours (the typical length of time it takes for a released ovum to develop and then create a shell, all while moving down the reproductive tract.) They generally don’t.

During the height of summer, our Easter Egger laid daily, the Buff Orp laid six times a week, and the Barred Rock laid five times (these are averages.)

They’re starting to slow down now with the short days, especially the EE. I’m grateful for that, because daily laying can be tough on their bodies.