First eggs from pullets--how often?

[ducks4you]

Pardon me for not running a thorough search, BUT, my 7 pullets have started laying. They are 5 month old RIR's. I got one egg two weeks ago, and another this morning. Is this normal? Are any possibly eating eggs and I'm missing it? Comments...

 

[crazyhen]

When hens start to lay they can be very irregular. Their size and color too will change. Not base color, just shade. Look around carefully in your litter. Mine hide them in there. They covered them when they first started. I would not have found them if I was not raking out the coop that day. If they free range start listening for their egg song and go where they are to search for a nest. If you suspect egg eating go to the coop quickly when you hear the song and check them. Also right now I have one that is dropping hers in the run. I guess they have to learn what to do or rather where to do. lol Gloria Jean

Ps: that does seem even more eratic than normal.

 

[ducks4you]

Thanks for the insight!

I DID find the first egg in the litter when I was cleaning, so that makes sense. I STILL need to slaughter my 3 roosters who are still living with the hens--THAT's why I thought that there might be some egg eating. Last time I tried chickens I bought a clutch of, what turned out to be, 5 roosters and 1 hen, RIR. I didn't sell the roos until they were 7 months old, and I didn't get any eggs from my hen until a few day after her "brothers" were gone.

Not too worried about fertilized eggs, though. My neighbor, former chicken owner, told me to just collect the eggs often and don't worry about eating them even IF there were fertilized.

 

[ducks4you]

UPDATE: Only ONE of my pullets is laying. She's on the same schedule as my older hen, one egg about 36 hours apart. How do I know? She is the most mature and my roos just "Love" her.
STILL have my 3 roos--that should be changed Sunday afternoon, hopefully. I'm planning chicken for dinner.

Thanks, crazyhen, you were right about when and where they lay. I found some eggs outside and found some eggs inside their temp. housing. Started feeding oyster shell free choice, because I noticed that the shells are sometimes thin. I'm still feeding everyone chick starter/grower, plus cracked corn (and grit, of course). I'm going to finish up the chick starter before I switch them to layer feed. They also get all of the cracked skin tomatoes ( I planted >60 this year ) and leftovers. They don't want the over ripe cucumbers--horses love those, anyway.

Anybody else wanna add some pointers? I'll be happy to listen.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I agree. In the beginning almost anything goes.