Finally my ladies seem be laying!!

[bizzeeb60]

Well finally over the past 3 or so weeks my ladies have started to be more consistent with the egg laying. With the five hens, I am now on the average getting 3-4 eggs per day now, and most of them are the size of a normal large egg you would get from the grocery store.

Most are white, some are off-white and Miss Sadie (my black one w/ the gold cape seems to be the one laying the light brown ones.

Now I have four nesting boxes and a lot of the time I will get 3 of the four eggs out of one box and they only seem to lay their eggs in the afternoon (usually after 3pm) is this normal?

 

[CityClucks]

Yea! Glad your girls are finally paying the rent! My two hens varied on the times they laid - my Barred Rock usually gave me an egg every day by 11:00 a.m., while the Minorca was usually done by about 2:00 p.m. on the days she decided to grace me with her eggitude. I don't know if there's a "normal" laying hour; someone with more experience will be able to tell you soon!

 

[Lesa]

Congrats on the eggs! Yes, it is normal for the chickens to prefer one box over another. Just when I think to myself that my chickens haven't been using the one on the end- the next day it will have eggs in it! I believe they receive some kind of message from the chicken planet or something! My favorite is when you find two or more chickens in one nesting box...My boxes are kind of small- but that does not stop the crowd! Most of my girls are done laying by 3pm- but I doubt it is unusual for your to be laying at that time. Maybe it is weather related? Enjoy your eggs!

 

[Wynette]

Yep, they have their favorite box, which is usually the one with an egg in it already!

I've actually seen 2 in the box at once, and one hen lay it's egg right on top of ther other, and it rolled off the back of the other hen & onto the floor of the nest box. Sheesh! You actually only need 1 nest box for every 4-5 chickens (wish I'd have found that out before I built my coop).

 

[bizzeeb60]

I know, my girls seem to prefer the first or fourth box. Then one day I find eggs in the second or third.

Funny when I went in to give them some scratch yesterday morning one was in the box and another walked up and jumped right in there with her!

Guess they all have minds of their own and at least Sadie is not being a Satan chick this time and has not gone all broody like when she first started laying.