Early Evening egg laying

[Sgrrt]

One of my Rhode Island Reds has taken to lay an egg between
4&5 pm. How unusual is this? I close the nesting boxes at night because other hens have attempted to use for roosting.
Thanks!
Steve

 

[Marinefam2053]

I honestly can't say what is normal or not. My pullets have just started laying within the last 2 months and there isn't any consistency for any of the layers yet. I just make sure to check the nest boxes once all the girls are on the roost. Good luck!

 

[aart]

One of my Rhode Island Reds has taken to lay an egg between
4&5 pm. How unusual is this? I close the nesting boxes at night because other hens have attempted to use for roosting.
Thanks!
Steve

How old is she, in weeks...and how long have she been laying??
Does she lay every day?

Normally.....
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.

 

[Kiki]

One of my Rhode Island Reds has taken to lay an egg between
4&5 pm. How unusual is this? I close the nesting boxes at night because other hens have attempted to use for roosting.
Thanks!
Steve

Very normal.
All of my birds lay in the evening.

 

[chrissynemetz]

I agree, it's normal.
Mine lay anywhere between 6:00 a.m. up until around 7:00 p.m. And I've had the occasional egg during the night as well.

 

[rosemarythyme]

They lay when they need to lay. Thankfully it's pretty rare to get them so late in the evening that the hen doesn't make it back to the roost.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree, it's not that unusual. Each chicken is an individual. While an average time for an egg to go through the hen's internal egg making factory is about 25 hours, for some it may be less than 24 or more than 26. Averages work that way. One trigger for the hen to release a yolk to start the next egg on its internal journey is when she lays an egg, usually about 20 minutes after the egg is laid. For some it might not be exactly 20 minutes. When it gets daylight and dark is another trigger to release that yolk, that is to keep a hen from having to lay an egg after dark. Some pullets start out with pretty good control in this timing but some need some time to work the bugs out of their system.

Many hens typically lay a bit later every day until they skip a day. Some hens do not lay every day so some of these triggers don't work. I had a hen, my only green egg layer at the time, that laid her egg every day for about 7 days straight at a time before skipping a day. Always before 9:00 AM or she would not lay at all that day. I've never noticed a specific hen that only laid in the afternoon but that may because her eggs weren't that distinctive. I have had hens laying eggs really late in the day, even as it is getting dark.

Steve, I don't know how consistent that hen is but I don't doubt you for a minute. It's just the way that hen is.

 

[Sgrrt]

How old is she, in weeks...and how long have she been laying??
Does she lay every day?

Normally.....
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.

She is 6weeks old. I have now decided to not close up the nesting boxes for that reason they could lay even later.

 

[DobieLover]

She is 6weeks old. I have now decided to not close up the nesting boxes for that reason they could lay even later.

6 weeks? Do you mean 16 weeks?

Where are your nest boxes in relation to the roosts? The roosts must be higher than the nest boxes. How much roost space do you have and how many birds? What breeds?

It is not uncommon for pullets to sleep in the nest boxes until they start becoming more confident to join others on the roost. I have a 22 week old pullet in with a bunch of 20 month old hens and 8 month old pullets and I have to remove her from a nest box nightly. I just wait until it is fully dark before doing final head count and lockup. I remove her and place her next to her father if there is space or on an empty spot on the roost. It's too dark by that time for her neighbors to peck at her. She will stay there until morning. No poopy nest boxes and they are open for my dawn layers to use.

 

[Sgrrt]

6 weeks? Do you mean 16 weeks?

Where are your nest boxes in relation to the roosts? The roosts must be higher than the nest boxes. How much roost space do you have and how many birds? What breeds?

It is not uncommon for pullets to sleep in the nest boxes until they start becoming more confident to join others on the roost. I have a 22 week old pullet in with a bunch of 20 month old hens and 8 month old pullets and I have to remove her from a nest box nightly. I just wait until it is fully dark before doing final head count and lockup. I remove her and place her next to her father if there is space or on an empty spot on the roost. It's too dark by that time for her neighbors to peck at her. She will stay there until morning. No poopy nest boxes and they are open for my dawn layers to use.