Daily egg laying:

[O(akly270]

Do hens generally lay their eggs early in the day or all through the day? And why is it that my hens lay one day and skip the next?

 

[HEChicken]

They can lay all through the day. Each hen has an individual schedule is 26 hours. In other words, if she laid at 9am today, it would be 11am tomorrow, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm and then probably the next day would be a day off, starting early the following morning. However there is SO much variation to this. Some breeds - those bred for egg-laying like sex links - might lay every day for weeks without a break. I have a BO whose cycle is roughly 24 hours resulting in her laying every day since Jan 12th! However other breeds - those bred for other traits - may not lay on such a regular schedule. If you have one that is truly only laying every other day, it could be that she is a breed where the egg-laying gene is not the dominant gene, or it could just be that her individual schedule is more like 40-48 hours.

 

[O(akly270]

Quote:
I have Buff Orpintons, New Hampshire Reds, and one Barred Rock. The Barred Rock seems to lay about every other day. The Buffs and the New Hampshire's don't seem to really cranked up with their egg laying. One problem I am thinking could be that the Buffs are getting old. The New Hampshire's are about 1yr old.

 

[HEChicken]

Age could certainly be a factor. How old is your BR? Mine does pretty much lay every day - she is 6 months old today and started laying a month ago. She took her first day off one day last week.

 

[O(akly270]

The Barred Rock is about a year old. Maybe I should get them some laying pellets.

 

[Kim_NC]

Yep, you need laying pellets or crumbles, especially if the hens can't free range to fillout their diet with bugs and other high protein items like clover.

A hen needs at least 16% protein to lay her best, and plenty of water available. (The two main ingredients of eggs are protein and water.)

Laying pellets or crumbles start at 16% protein. Anything else like scratch or cracked corn is much lower - about 8% depending on the mix. That's not enough for a hen to lay well.

Your 1 yr old birds should be good layers this year, even a 2 yr old hen should still lay well enough to pay for her feed....if they have a proper diet.

 

[Dixiedoodle]

several things determine the laying rate/quality.

One is food.. As Kim said, they need at least 16% protein --If you are offering 16% pellets free choice and giving the free choice of corn--they might eat enough corn to dilute the protein in their pellets! So look for higher protein treats, meal worms, really good birdseed (nuts, berries, oats,--the one I feed is 11% protein and I use it as scratch).

Two is seasons/time of year.. they don't lay as well in winter--shorter days--they need 12 hours of light to lay really well

Three is stress-- not having a good ratio of hen to roo, predators--including the owners own animals , illness/health, moving them

Breed-- some breeds have not been bred for production-- Different breeders breed for different purposes..Many backyard flocks are breed w/o thought to what they are breeding-- including egg production and flighty, nasty temperament. They might be gathering ALL their eggs and hatching them w/ out thought of what they are really breeding. And show quality birds might be bred for just looks/ conformation instead of egg laying qualities.

And age! Younger hens don't lay on a reg. schedule, it's haphazard at best.. Older hens might be not lay on a reg schedule...

 

[O(akly270]

Quote:
Okay, picked up the 16% laying pellets today and they went to town on it! Maybe I will be getting more eggs soon!