Egg Collection vs. Production

[Bruthabuz]

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it won't stop me! Is egg production affected in any way by how often you go out to collect them?

 

[quackingdom]

Some of my birds will stop laying in a nest if they see I've stolen all the eggs. Sometimes they find a new nest and continue laying, other times it seems like they just quit laying if I take their eggs. They probably instinctually think something like, "This wasn't a safe nest; I'll try again later." Fake eggs help to avoid this, but not all the birds are fooled by them. Of course, there are also quite a few who lay every day in the same nest and don't care that it's empty every morning when they come back to it.

 

[-Chanticleer-]

My cuckoo screamed her head off because my daughter grabbed an egg right after she laid. I think it made her mad, I have fake eggs I replace them with now if she’s around and I’m collecting.

 

[K0k0shka]

No, this is biology. They have a whole conveyor belt of future eggs inside their bodies at different stages of development that have already started forming, and they can't pause production because of superficial things like you collecting the eggs. A major stressor may interrupt the process, like serious illness or injury, but you collecting the eggs isn't a major stressor. The normal life of a hen includes humans taking her eggs for the majority of her life, and in production settings the eggs roll out and are whisked away immediately, yet the hens keep laying.

 

[aart]

Depends on how calm you flock is you are present.
I've spent a lot of time out with the flock, including when they are in the nests.
I try not to take eggs right from underneath them even tho some don't mind at all, but some it might freak them out enough to keep them scared of the nests.

I keep a fake egg or two in each nest anyway, so they don't really know I've taken anything.

I see no reason to gather eggs except at the end of the day when I lock up after dark.

 

[rosemarythyme]

The simple answer is no. If they have an egg that's ready to be laid, they're going to lay it regardless if you collect 3x a day or once every 3 days. Stress can cause them to stop laying for a few weeks, but if you stick with a routine then the frequency of collection is a non factor.

I usually gather twice a day. All of my hens will tolerate me reaching under them to grope for eggs. As long as my fakes (golf balls) are in the nests they're not upset by "missing" eggs.

 

[Bruthabuz]

My cuckoo screamed her head off because my daughter grabbed an egg right after she laid. I think it made her mad, I have fake eggs I replace them with now if she’s around and I’m collecting.

I just experienced the same thing with one of my black Easter eggers. She was sitting in the nest when I approached her. She started screaming, then stood up. I could see an egg under her (it wasn't hers, it was a brown egg) and when I reached in to get it, she started pecking at my hand. After I took it, she settled back down in the nest and continued her own laying!

 

[-Chanticleer-]

I just experienced the same thing with one of my black Easter eggers. She was sitting in the nest when I approached her. She started screaming, then stood up. I could see an egg under her (it wasn't hers, it was a brown egg) and when I reached in to get it, she started pecking at my hand. After I took it, she settled back down in the nest and continued her own laying!

Probably out of instinct. If they are in there when I go check I just close it back up and wait till they come out. I have a relatively small flock of 8 and five of them are laying.

 

[Bruthabuz]

The simple answer is no. If they have an egg that's ready to be laid, they're going to lay it regardless if you collect 3x a day or once every 3 days. Stress can cause them to stop laying for a few weeks, but if you stick with a routine then the frequency of collection is a non factor.

I usually gather twice a day. All of my hens will tolerate me reaching under them to grope for eggs. As long as my fakes (golf balls) are in the nests they're not upset by "missing" eggs.

I usually collect once a day, sometime around 5:00-7:00 PM (I rarely have any eggs in the morning) in order to count how many are being produced each day and I keep a record. Within the past week or so I started collecting a few times a day at different times and recording how many at each time. It looked to me that during the times of collecting multiple times each day, the production decreased only slightly. It was just an experiment. I'll probably go back to collecting once a day in the evening. Only once (today) have I had a hen get mad at me for disturbing her to reach under to get an egg. From now on, I'll just leave them all alone until they are finished (late afternoon/early evening)!