Egglaying

[chickenlady2010]

Ok, so we have 20 chickens, and three of these are roosters (yes, one of these roosters is scheduled to be eaten, but that's for another thread). 4 hens are white leghorns and the other hens are buff orpingtons. The buff's were hatched April 2nd. I am unsure of what day the leghorns were hatched, but they're all close in age.

The hens have been laying for a month or so. All we are getting is brown eggs of various shades. I've only seen buffs laying, so I'm pretty sure the leghorns aren't laying yet. Also, we just started getting 4 eggs a day a week ago. However, yesterday we only got two eggs. Over the weekend we were busy and kept forgetting to collect the eggs when we went out to feed them, so on the third day when we went to collect all of the eggs, there were only 7 eggs. Shouldn't we be getting eggs from just about all of the hens every day by now? My husband was reading that they need 16 hours of light for laying, so he thought maybe putting a specific light with a low wattage would help if we put it on a timer for a couple hours early in the morning. At the same time I think about people raising chickens 200 years ago, they didn't have electricity in their chicken coops, etc, and obviously their chickens lived and laid eggs just fine. Penny for your thoughts?

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC Do your birds free range? Sometimes LH will start late, how well developed are their combs and wattles? we're so happy you joined us

 

[chickenlady2010]

Hi and welcome to BYC Do your birds free range? Sometimes LH will start late, how well developed are their combs and wattles? we're so happy you joined us

Just about every day I let them out. I let the dogs run around for a while, and then I put them away and let the chickens out till mid-afternoon. The hens still lay in the nesters, at all times of the day, despite being out to roam. I would say their combs and wattles are fully developed, or close to it. Maybe I should try getting a couple pics of them to post here?

 

[rjohns39]

Just about every day I let them out. I let the dogs run around for a while, and then I put them away and let the chickens out till mid-afternoon. The hens still lay in the nesters, at all times of the day, despite being out to roam. I would say their combs and wattles are fully developed, or close to it. Maybe I should try getting a couple pics of them to post here?

We love pix... But also search your yard as new layers are sneaky and hide eggs. My ILs were about 26 weeks when they started and pretty much gave me an egg every other day for a month, then daily after that with about 6 per week.

 

[chickenlady2010]

Ok, so here are some pictures. They kept moving and pecking at my toes. lol I have seen them lay in one spot out in the shed, and I always check there for eggs but haven't ever seen any there except for 2 times. Otherwise, the kiddos and I always look around outside for them. As we speak, I can hear one out in the coop laying and making quite a racket.

 

[Ridgerunner]

People really get hung up on when pullets should start laying. Reading some of the posts on this forum I can see why. Most of the pullets we normally get from hatcheries tend to start laying somewhere between 4 to 6 months of age but some take even longer to start regardless of breed. Each one is an individual and may not necessarily do what they “should” do. It sounds like yours are pretty much on target, a few are laying but a lot are not. You can expect production to increase pretty soon.

One of the clues that a pullet or hen is laying or about to begin is that the combs and wattles turn bright red. There are some other things that can affect comb and wattle color and turn them red but bright red is a good clue. Something else you can do is to look at the vent where the egg will come out. A large moist soft vent means the pullet or hen is laying or about to. A tight dry vent means she is not laying. Take these things as clues not absolute certainties but the vent appearance is a pretty good clue. I’d trust it more than a red comb.

One common cause of not getting the eggs you think you should is that they are hiding a nest on you. You might try locking them in the coop/run for a couple of days to see if you get an increase in egg production. They will all want out since they have been getting out, but if you see one pacing the fence really wanting out there is a pretty good chance she has a nest out there somewhere. They can hold that egg in quite a while, that’s why I suggest keeping them locked up two days, not just one.

There are different things that affect egg laying. Length of day is one of those. Hens do not need 16 hours of light to lay eggs. You don’t say where you are located so I don’t have a clue what your longest and shortest days are, but this time of the year it’s highly unlikely you are close to 16 hours and some of yours are laying. Many of us live close enough to the equator that we never see 14 or 16 hour long days. A lot of times you see 14 hours on here instead of the 16, that’s also a myth. For different reasons shorter days can cut back on production but the length of the day is not the most important factor.

A much larger factor is whether the days are getting longer of shorter. Before they were domesticated hens followed a general pattern. They’d lay eggs, hatch and raise chicks when the days were getting longer and on up onto summer. That meant the weather was nice and food to raise chicks was plentiful. When the days got shorter and food was going to be scarce, they’d stop laying eggs and molt. Their feathers wear out and need to be replaced, that was a good time to do that. Then when the days got longer they’d start laying eggs and hatch chicks.

They still retain some of those tendencies, especially about molting, since we domesticated them. But we feed them year around so they don’t get hungry in winter. We’ve bred them to not go broody nearly as much. Often outside lights extend the daylight. Some hens still cut back or stop in winter and wait for the days to get longer but many lay really well even in winter after the molt is finished. A lot of pullets skip the molt their first fall/winter and continue laying until the following fall when they molt. I don’t use lights but most of my pullets tend to lay throughout their first winter. My older hens all molt when the days get shorter but they tend to start laying when the molt is over and not wait until up in spring when the days get longer.

Some people use lights to stop the days from getting shorter so their hens don’t molt, they continue laying through the winter. I’ve had pullets start laying in December when the days are about as short as they are going to get but still getting shorter. Increasing the length of day might kick-start some of your pullets but you might want to wait another month before you try that to see what happens. Your days will be shorter by then so increasing light may have even more of an effect.

Be patient if you do that. A pullet or hen has to make internal changes to switch from not laying to laying mode. Don’t expect immediate results. She has to grow some ova into yolks and make some changes to her internal plumbing. That can take a few weeks for some of them.

One thing to consider on extending the lights when they get older. After a hen lays continuously for a time period her body wears out and she needs a rest. That’s usually around 13 to 16 months of continuous laying. Production drops off and egg quality can deteriorate. Shells can get thin or maybe the whites get runny, stuff like that. The eggs are still safe to eat. Each hen is an individual so it doesn’t happen to all of them at exactly the same time, but don’t be surprised if a hen goes through a full or mini-molt even in spring or summer to rest her body before she resumes production.

 

[rjohns39]

I would say your LHs aren't quite there yet. See how straight the combs are on the buffs and bright red, when your LHs get there you'll have white eggs. And everything @Ridgerunner said.

 

[chickenlady2010]

Thank you.

 

[chickenlady2010]

UPDATE:

A week ago we butchered 4 chickens, freeing up some space and now giving us 14. Now we have 3 leghorn hens, 1 leghorn rooster, 1 buff rooster, and 9 buff hens. I apparently haven't been feeding them enough either, so I doubled their feed last week. Since doing so, I noticed that one leghorn hen's comb is sticking straight up, one is a little lop-sided, and the third is still completely lop-sided. On the other hand, maybe their combs were like that before, and I didn't notice till now; I thought all their combs were floppy before, but maybe I'm mistaken. When my husband brought in eggs last night, he brought in two white eggs, our first ones. There were also medium-large size, not tiny little pullet eggs. Also, the other day we got a tiny, brown pullet egg, so my assumption is that another buff started laying. We are still only getting 1-4 eggs a day, but at least things still seem to be improving.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Good news.

Leghorns lay relatively large eggs for their body size. One trick commercial egg laying operations use is to delay the onset of egg laying a bit using lights and what they feed them so the pullets start out laying larger eggs. The larger eggs are worth a lot more than the small pullet eggs.

Another advantage is that the pullets are a bit larger and more mature. Their bodies are better able to handle egg laying, even with the larger eggs. By delaying the onset of lay a couple of weeks they reduce the amount of physical problems the pullets experience. With thousands of hens in one building that can add up. They see a commercial advantage in having fewer pullets prolapse or get egg bound because they are laying so young, let alone the larger eggs. Like everyone else I want those first eggs, but I'm not upset if they wait a bit to start. I think you are doing fine.