how long until the next egg?!?

[kgdubois]

I have had two of my hens lay their first egg (or two that I've found, they free range all day and I suppose they could have laid somewhere that I can't find them). My chickens were hatched on April 10 of this year -- so if I've counted right that makes them 19 weeks old this week. I was not expecting eggs quite this early, but am delighted to have them.

My first question is -- How long between eggs? The first girl to lay was one of my EE hens, as it was a very pretty light teal. She laid it on Thursday, and I have had no EE colored eggs since then in the coop. Yesterday evening I had a light brown speckled egg, which could have come from several of my hens. There were no more in the coop this morning when I let them out at 7:30.

I have read about leaving the hens in their coop until around 10am to ensure they lay in their boxes -- would y'all suggest that? I work in town, so I would have to rely on my parents to remember to let them out, otherwise they would be stuck in a hot coop all day long.

Thanks in advance!
Kendra

 

[BairleaFarm]

mine(all 5) lay in the late afternoon. Some of my just laying hens only give me a couple eggs a week while the others give me eggs daily. I assume that the ones new to laying dont lay everyday.

 

[Sphinx]

My chickens got to laying more frequently as they got into the groove of laying. I'll bet she ends up laying more often once she gets the hang of it. My EE chickens lay 4-5 eggs a week.

What is your set up for your hens when they leave the coop? Are they free ranging over a ton of space? If they haven't got a ton of space, I'd just let them out in the morning and not bother my parents to let them out. On the other hand, if they free range over 10 acres, my answer may change.

 

[kgdubois]

My hens have free run of our entire headquarters, which is around 300 acres. They rarely stray out of our livestock pen area, however -- this includes a very large barn (60' x 80') that has covered horse stalls, many pens with loading chute & alley, very large shop/mechanic barn and an arena & paddock. If I had to guess, I'd say the livestock pen area covers about two football fields worth of land.

The coop is very large (we repurposed a cement stock tank that was built in the 1950s), measuring around 12' x 15' and it is at least 7' tall. I have 19 chickens (3 roosters & 16 hens) and one duck drake who all live in there.

I have tried to watch them to see if any of the girls are sneaking off to lay, but since I work during the week it's hard to do that. They are very gentle & come when I call, but last week one of the girls would not come in, and I ended up loosing her to a skunk/racoon/fox (not sure what it was, but it ate her up). I read about some hens sneaking away to lay where they felt safe, and thought maybe she did this & refused to leave her nest. She was a Cuckoo Marans who was acting broody on the ceramic eggs I had in the nesting boxes in the coop.

Thank you so much for any advice you can send my way!

 

[treeclimber233]

Watch them on a weekend day. Or maybe I should say listen to them. When one lays an egg she will announce it to the world. Try to see where she is when she starts squawking. She will be fairly close to where she lay her egg. That will give you a general area to start looking. HOwever with all the area they have to lay it will be a good bet they will find some dark corner under something to lay. I would wait until the weather cools and then leave them in the chicken house until 10:00 or even later. Once they get used to laying wherever they want it will be hard to get them to lay where you want them to. Is there any way to put up a yard to restrict where they go until they get used to laying in the nest boxes. Then remove the wire......

 

[Courtney134]

I have 5 hens that are of laying age, and I get 2 eggs a day. I'm not sure if it's the same 2 laying every day or if they are laying every other day, or what they're doing. I do know when I got my first egg, I didn't get one the next day, and then the next day I got two. I let them out of the coop at 8:30, but they have access to a run. I don't let them out to free range until 4. By then, I'm hoping they are done laying for the day, because I don't want to do an egg hunt.