Latest in the day your chickens will lay?

[TerryBowleg]

What’s the latest time of day your chickens will lay? Mine seem to be late morning/early afternoon layers.

 

[drangle]

it takes a chicken around 26 hours to fully create and lay an egg so they should be laying a little later each day, when it comes to them laying at night it seems they either skip a day or just hold it till first light.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

My chickens all seem to lay at different times throughout the day. I collect the eggs at night instead of the morning because my last layers for the day seem to head to the nesting box at 2-3 in the afternoon.

 

[TinyRaptorDodos]

Hard to say, my hens lay all throughout the day. 7am, 9am, 12pm, 5pm, 1am, 3am then repeat. But sometimes the late layers don’t lay

 

[CoopBoots]

Agree with @HollowOfWisps, late layers are around 2-3pm, and assuming some girls take a long time last eggs are in around 4, 5 at the latest. All nesting activity seems to stop for evening socializing/foraging/preening parties.

 

[crystalsc]

So, can hens “hold it”? Yesterday I had a meeting away from the house (I usually work from home.) my girls generally lay between 10am and noon. The first few eggs were about 3pm. Yesterday, my hen Cleo -she’s the one who follows me the most and tries to come inside each day- came running up to me when I got home at 5pm. When I went into the coop a little later she ran into the nest box and laid an egg at 5:30pm! I was so surprised. I’m a first time chick mom so I was worried something was wrong. So, this is normal? Was she waiting one me? lol

 

[rosemarythyme]

So, can hens “hold it”? Yesterday I had a meeting away from the house (I usually work from home.) my girls generally lay between 10am and noon. The first few eggs were about 3pm. Yesterday, my hen Cleo -she’s the one who follows me the most and tries to come inside each day- came running up to me when I got home at 5pm. When I went into the coop a little later she ran into the nest box and laid an egg at 5:30pm! I was so surprised. I’m a first time chick mom so I was worried something was wrong. So, this is normal? Was she waiting one me? lol

They can hold it for a little while. Eventually it'll need to come out. For example if you accidentally lock them out of the coop all day, you'll likely find some eggs dropped in the run because they can only hold off for so long before they simply lay where they can.

Because the average cycle to form an egg is longer than 24 hours you may notice regular layers laying progressively later in the day until they skip an entire day.

 

[Mrs. K]

The idea that they lay in the morning is a myth. They lay all day long. Some lay more regularly than others. Skipping a day is common, some birds, some breeds skip more days than others.

Laying eggs is a sign of a healthy flock. If your birds are active, bright eyed and laying they are fine.

Mrs K

 

[crystalsc]

They can hold it for a little while. Eventually it'll need to come out. For example if you accidentally lock them out of the coop all day, you'll likely find some eggs dropped in the run because they can only hold off for so long before they simply lay where they can.

Because the average cycle to form an egg is longer than 24 hours you may notice regular layers laying progressively later in the day until they skip an entire day.

Thank you so much! This is so helpful.

 

[crystalsc]

The idea that they lay in the morning is a myth. They lay all day long. Some lay more regularly than others. Skipping a day is common, some birds, some breeds skip more days than others.

Laying eggs is a sign of a healthy flock. If your birds are active, bright eyed and laying they are fine.

Mrs K

Thank you! This is such a learning process.