laying times ?

[dehowery]

We Have a wyandotte we call her Big Red. When we got her and the other 5 girls she is/was the only chicken laying. We can almost set the clock by her laying time..Between 11:00 am- 1:00 pm every other day. Last week (about 5 days ago) & last night we found another egg when we let the girls out. We thought maybe one of the others was starting to lay, but only one a week. Is this common when chickens start laying? We are first time chicken owners and need info. I have searched the web but no one seems to have the answer I need. The rest of the 5 girls are same/different breeds & different ages. When we got them the guy we purchased them from said they should all be laying within 3 mos. I will admit they are really cool to watch! Appreciate any answer you can give [email protected].

 

[rebrascora]

Hi
It is almost more common for them to be sporadic when they first start laying than it is for them to be regular, so it may be that you have another girl starting up, or possibly even more than one. Usually you will see a noticeable change in comb colour and behaviour as they come into lay. Some will get quite vocal or erratic and pushy or even aggressive. You can usually tell which ones are laying by assessing the distance been their pelvic points. The general rule of thumb is if there is a 2 finger width distance between their pelvic points, they are laying, one finger and they are not. If you free range at all, it is possible that they are laying more frequently, but some of the eggs are being laid elsewhere and possibly being eaten by scavengers..... I'm having a terrible problem with crows jackdaws and rats stealing eggs at the moment. If I collect eggs and put them down for a moment and turn my back, there is a crow, that has one away before I know where I am at. New layers often drop eggs out in the run or under the roost when they first start up laying, so there may have been other eggs that you have missed out on, or they could be just very sporadic as their egg production system gets underway. Hopefully you will be getting lots more eggs soon.