Egg Laying

[mdibaugh]

What time of day do chickens lay their eggs? My guess is all times of the day. Curious to get everyones answers.

 

[lothefarmer]

mine lay throughout the day. i find that most of them lay from before i wake up until about 1 or 2 pm.

 

[gryeyes]

For the regular ol' chicken, nothing fancy, nothing unusual, it takes about 26 hours to "make" an egg. The longest time period is for the production of the shell, which is around 19 of those hours.

So, most chickens have a cycle, if they are daily layers, which progresses about 2 hours later each day until it's too late to lay. At which time, the hen will not lay until the next day.

Most eggs are laid between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.

 

[woodmort]

I had 9 eggs when I let my girls out at about 1 this afternoon--the weather was so lousy I didn't let them out any earlier--and when I shut them up at 7 there were 3 more eggs. That is about normal--most lay in the morning but a few will wait until afternoon. That's why it is a good idea to collect a couple of times during those cold winter days.