Hi! My chickens are almost nineteen months old and have not started laying any eggs. I'm not very concerned because I've read that it could take 18-20 weeks but it has been unusually hot these past few days and I was wondering if that could effect their egg laying. Any comments?
I'm a bit confused, are they 19 months or 19 weeks? All hens start at a different time based on many factors. Start dates are just a general rule and can change based on feed, breeds, and breeding.
Yes, extreme heat and cold can effect egg laying, but in your case where the hens have not started laying it's probably because they simply have not started laying yet... As suggested above there are a lot of reasons that can effect when they start laying, first and foremost is genetics, nothing you can do about that some lay early some take forever... But you can encourage egg laying by making a suitable stress free environment for them, suitable and likable nesting boxes, proper amount of light and proper nutrition then wait for genetics kick in...
Hens lay best between temperatures of 50-80 degrees F. Excessive heat and cold can most definitely effect egg laying.
It's cooled down and has been raining a lot. It is still around 82 degrees, but I guess thats better than 90 degrees. Apparently, my Black Australorp, Peppa, thinks so to, because she just layed the first egg today! I am so happy, she will most definately get a nice treat for that.