Egg laying (Yay!)

[alisonjones89]

Hey Backyard Chickeners, I need your opinions. I have a RIR hen that started laying about three weeks ago. She was laying almost an egg every day, and they were getting progressively bigger. Then, this weekend, we went out of town for four days, and she has not laid an egg since I got back (we got back on a Monday evening, and today is Thursday evening, so it's been 3-4 days with no egg). She still squats when I go to pick her up. I just want to figure out if I should be concerned. I know the eggs are not being stolen by other animals, because my Black Australorp's eggs are present in the coop still. I look forward to what you have to say!

 

[SJ]

No need to worry she likely just got out of sorts when you left. She should lay again by tomorrow. Or the other likely hood is she is hiding her eggs. I thought four of my hens had stopped laying last summer for a week before I found all the eggs inside a tire. They had been sneaking into my shed and found a stack of old tires in the corner. 18 eggs and four grumpy girls later I moved the tires.

 

[SJ]

Welcome to the backyard chickens community.

 

[BantamLover21]

She's probably just taking a break. Most hens don't lay for extended periods of time without a short rest, particularly if they are young and new to laying. A hen's system usually begins producing the next egg 30 minutes after the previous egg is laid, and chickens don't lay at night. That means that the time of day a bird lays gets later and later, until they finally end up skipping a day (or days).