How long to the first egg with Buckeyes??

[Newtohens]

I was wondering how long it was before Buckeye owners got their first egg? I have 4 Buckeyes and 2 Silver Laced Wyandottes that hatched out June 1st, but I have yet to get an egg. They are 28 weeks old and nothing, I know they need at least 14 hours of light to produce an egg, could the onset of shorter days in fall and winter slowed them down? I have 3 older hens that are all in molt so we have no eggs at the moment. I am getting frustrated and hungry lol.

 

[slfarms]

Hi newtohens. If your buckeyes are in molt all of the feed is going to developing new feathers. Usually mine take around a month to two months to start back up on egg production. As for the ones that are younger my baby bucks will start laying at 6-7 months. With it being winter you will see a longer delay.

 

[007medic]

Hey Newtohens,

I sympathize with the lack of omelets, lol! But seriously, having kept Buckeyes for some years now (my oldest hen is eight yrs old) I think I can give you a little more information as to the vagaries of hatching, molting and laying. Like slfarms says, 24-28 weeks is usually the window for point of lay in pullets and that window can get a whole lot wider depending on when the pullet was hatched. I've experienced pullets that were hatched in summer that delayed laying until early spring -say, late January/early February. If there's not enough daylight to trigger egg production when the pullet reaches point of lay...well, you get the idea. There is an upside to this delayed onset of lay. The delay permits the pullet to really get some good internal development and size so that when they do start to lay you get a much larger egg and there's fewer stutters at the start of lay. I've noticed these 'late bloomers' tend to end up some of my more productive and reliable layers.

Now with molting, like slfarms says four to eight weeks (and if it's one of your older girls, as much as twelve weeks) is the type of break you can expect from laying. Hopefully you'll have good molting birds that will drop all their feathers at a whack and get back to the business of laying tout de suite. At our place here, I've noticed that pullets hatched to reach point of lay in or about August/September will lay well straight through the winter. Right now we've got about eight such pullets laying in a coop along with seven of the older (3-4 years old) girls and we're getting 7-10 eggs a day out of that coop. The older girls are laying (to the best of my discernment) 1-2 eggs a week at this time so close to winter solstice and no artificial light to supplement. The pullets on the other hand are laying closer to 3-5 eggs a week.

Hope this helps.

 

[Newtohens]

Thanks for the insight. My older hens are 3 years old and all started laying around 20 weeks, but they are all molting so I was hoping for some production from my 28 week old pullets. So I guess I will just have to wait it out a bit longer, but it seems as thought Buckeyes take a little longer to start producing and I hope your right about them developing better and become more productive down the line. Thanks again.