Laying hens

[missbrit2006]

My hens are all laying except two, but some days they lay some days the don't it's like every other day? Also can one chicks lay more then one egg? I think my white leghorn is laying two eggs. Also why don't they sit on there eggs they leave them

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

My hens are all laying except two, but some days they lay some days the don't it's like every other day? Also can one chicks lay more then one egg? I think my white leghorn is laying two eggs. Also why don't they sit on there eggs they leave them

How old are your birds?
Chickens don't lay an egg every day all year long - *most* standard breeds kept for egg production will give you somewhere between 250-300 eggs a year so you can see that there are going to be many days the bird does not lay. What breeds are you keeping? Knowing what the "average" is for the breeds you have can help you adjust your expectations.
It *can* happen that more than one egg will drop in a 24 hour period, but it is not *nearly* as common as some would lead you to believe. Do you have just one white laying breed bird in your flock?
Hens only "set" their eggs when they are "broody" - meaning they are hormonally driven to set and hatch eggs. The birds in our flock are not feeling broody so they are behaving perfectly normal in leaving them in the nest. A hen will lay eggs over a period of many days, accumulating a clutch and only then settle in and try to hatch them - and this only happens when her hormones tell her to do so. Some hens are prone to broodiness and would gladly be broody their entire lives, and other hens will go their entire life without going broody once. A lot of the difference will be in the breed of bird as those breeds that have been developed for produciton of eggs have had the "broody bred out of them" - your White Leghorn, for example, is a breed that would be less likely to go broody. Because broodiness is something you have NO control over, if hatching is something you really want to pursue it might be better to consider an incubator as that allows you to hatch when YOU want, vs. having to wait and hope a hen goes broody.
One thing to consider in wanting them to set is that a broody bird stops laying - so it isn't as desirable as you might thing to have them go broody on you.

 

[missbrit2006]

Ok thanks that all makes sense. I have 4 Rhode Island Reds, 3 Barred Rocks, 4 ameracaunas and 1 white leghorn.