Chickens who used to lay in morning now laying much later

[dellamarie]

Hi all,

I have 7 laying hens, 6 are some kind of red cross that we got as point of lay from a chicken farm. These have been laying since about May. The other is a cream legbar cross I hatched myself and she only began laying 4 days ago. Up until late last week all the other chickens laid in the morning before 10am. Over the weekend and into this week only 3 are laying in the morning ... one in the mid afternoon and the last one even later but hasn't laid at all today. What could be causing it?

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Chickens don’t run on a 24-hour cycle. It’s actually more like 26-ish hours. This means they should be laying any time during the day, but consistently about 2 hours later than the last time they laid. However the actually length of the cycle can vary between birds.

 

[dellamarie]

Chickens don’t run on a 24-hour cycle. It’s actually more like 26-ish hours. This means they should be laying any time during the day, but consistently about 2 hours later than the last time they laid. However the actually length of the cycle can vary between birds.

didn't know that .. probably didn't notice as it gets bright here in Ireland from about 3:30/4:00am in the summer so they could have laid anytime from then until I arrived at the coop and I'm not an early riser. Thanks for that humblehillsfarm!

 

[aart]

It takes about 25 hours for an egg to form, a new ova is released shortly after an egg is laid.

A new egg could be laid approximately every 25-26 hours, so an hour or so later every day until one is laid late in the day and another ova might not be released until the following day, so a day off. BUT..very hen is different and only time will tell what a particular hen/pullets schedule might be. Not every hen/pullet lays every day..some only lay a few a week.

 

[dellamarie]

It takes about 25 hours for an egg to form, a new ova is released shortly after an egg is laid.

A new egg could be laid approximately every 25-26 hours, so an hour or so later every day until one is laid late in the day and another ova might not be released until the following day, so a day off. BUT..very hen is different and only time will tell what a particular hen/pullets schedule might be. Not every hen/pullet lays every day..some only lay a few a week.

Thank you for that! learning lots here.