How to get chickens to start laying

[Parront]

For us our chickens start laying when they are six or seven months sometimes a year !!!!!!

Idk why we give them layer pellets at five months and oyster shells table scraps (veggies of course) I dont know maybe it's just the breeds but ours have never laid at 4 months we have had chickens for about 6 years now

It is not all that good for hens to start laying too early. It depends on the amount of daylight, if it is increasing or decreasing, and also the breed of the chickens. High-production breeds like a modern sex-link might begin to lay at 16 weeks with increasing day-length in the early summer. If you want to have them lay early, you have to control their light carefully. This time of the year, the day-length is already decreasing, so you might consider adding light in the morning to keep the days long like summer! You need to convince your hens that it is summer, with ~ 14-15 hours of daylight or they will not lay, or might start to lay for a couple of weeks, and then very disappointingly, stop laying in Sept!

 

[CJLR]

Thankyou to parront for the advice

Its summer here so maybe I'll have good luck with my 4 month old brahma

It is not all that good for hens to start laying too early. It depends on the amount of daylight, if it is increasing or decreasing, and also the breed of the chickens. High-production breeds like a modern sex-link might begin to lay at 16 weeks with increasing day-length in the early summer. If you want to have them lay early, you have to control their light carefully. This time of the year, the day-length is already decreasing, so you might consider adding light in the morning to keep the days long like summer! You need to convince your hens that it is summer, with ~ 14-15 hours of daylight or they will not lay, or might start to lay for a couple of weeks, and then very disappointingly, stop laying in Sept!

 

[Parront]

Thankyou to parront for the advice

Its summer here so maybe I'll have good luck with my 4 month old brahma

Brahma are a slow-growing breed. Not like a modern sex-link pictured by the original poster. Your bird might not begin to lay until the days start to lengthen in Feb/March.

 

[HopeSprings]

So how bright does supplemental lighting need to be?

 

[Parront]

So how bright does supplemental lighting need to be?

Really, not that bright. A light bulb that is the equivalent to 60-100 watts in an average size chicken house of ~ 100 sq ft. If you can read (not a tablet -- a real book) -- it is enough light.

 

[Parront]

I have to say on the subject of additional light: I do not like the modern Fluorescent lights. "CFL" lights seem to flicker and my parrots do not respond as well to them them, in my opinion. There is no scientific reason for my feeling, but I hoard the regular old-fashioned light bulbs with a filament. I use a "plant light" for my parrot as a sunlight alternative.