Is laying time heritable?

[Dr.Dale]

If I gather eggs for hatching before noon will those eggs tend to hatch hens that lay in the morning? Or is laying time just random in chickens and thus not a heritable trait

 

[igorsMistress]

Chickens lay an egg roughly every 25 hours, I would say it's unlikely. My girls gradually lay later in the day as the week goes along. Monday might be at dawn, but by Friday they're in the nests at midday, by the next Friday they're laying at dusk.

 

[SueT]

I have also heard that it takes 25 hours to make an egg. I notice they generally lay later and later in the day until there's a reset and they start in the morning again. They don't all lay every single day tho so I can't provide a chart proving this. But I trust the experts on the 25 hours thing.

 

[Dr.Dale]

Ok, so I probably don’t have some hens that are early layers and others that are late layers. Instead every day I have some lay early and some lay late, but it is different hens in each group each day.