Laying

[Mollie85]

i have 2 sexlink and 2 Easter egger hens all about 17-18 weeks old? Could I be seeing egg laying soon? We are putting a solar panel light in their coop to extend daylight hours.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

The sex links will start between 4-5 months generally and the Easter eggers 5-7 months.

 

[aart]

i have 2 sexlink and 2 Easter egger hens all about 17-18 weeks old? Could I be seeing egg laying soon? We are putting a solar panel light in their coop to extend daylight hours.

Welcome to BYC!
Solar panel lights won't work for winter laying,
unless you have a timer for them(hard to impossible to find from what I've read). Consistent lighting duration is very important.

 

[Mollie85]

Welcome to BYC!
Solar panel lights won't work for winter laying,
unless you have a timer for them(hard to impossible to find from what I've read). Consistent lighting duration is very important.

Ohhhhhh no! Well we will see. Today my smallest red sex link is just 17 weeks and squatted when I pet her today!

 

[Mollie85]

So my smallest red sex link who is 17 weeks is squatting when I pet her. Does this mean egg soon?! She has no artificial light right now, so about 9-9.5 hours of light per day. Oh my gosh I’m so excited, my other 3 do not squat at all when pet!

 

[aart]

Sometime pullets (first year layers) will lay thru the winter with no supplemental lighting, high production birds like sexlinks may be more likely to do so.

 

[Ridgerunner]

i have 2 sexlink and 2 Easter egger hens all about 17-18 weeks old? Could I be seeing egg laying soon? We are putting a solar panel light in their coop to extend daylight hours.

Could you be seeing egg laying soon? Yes, from any of them. Could it still be a few months before you see your first egg? Yes, it's possible. Each chicken is an individual and will start to lay when they start. Even pullets of the same breed and from the same flock can be months apart when they start to lay. Breeds do have general tendencies but you have to have enough of them for averages to mean something, you don't. You don't even have breeds.

You can get two different types of sex links from a hatchery. One type is from the commercial egg laying hybrids, these tend to start laying very young. That’s what they have been bred to do, lay eggs. The other type are made from crossing two breeds, often a RIR or New Hampshire rooster over a White Rock, Delaware, Rhode Island White, or Silver Laced Wyandotte hen but other breeds can be used. These tend to start laying a bit later though some can start pretty young. If you can tell us which hatchery they came from and what they were called we can maybe guess which type you have.

EE’s are certainly not a breed, they are just chickens where the hens might or might not lay colored eggs. Different hatcheries put their EE flocks together in different ways. Some have had their flocks from before the Ameraucana was even developed. In general these do tend to start laying a little later than many other hatchery pullets but it can still vary a lot within a flock with individuals.

Is squatting a sign that you will see an egg pretty soon? It’s a sign that you might. I’ve seen a 13 week old pullet squat for a 13 week old cockerel, she was still 6 to 8 weeks away from laying an egg. Squatting did not mean anything in her case. Squatting is about dominance, not egg laying. She obviously sees you as the dominant one. Still, her squatting is a good sign. For pullets maturity is tied in with egg laying and her squatting could be a really good sign. Don’t let me discourage you too much.

Combs and wattles turning bright red is another good sign that they might be getting close to egg laying, but there can be other reasons for the comb and wattles turning red. The distance between pelvic bones is an important clue. I don’t have a link to show you how to do that but you can research it if you wish. Another really good sign is to look at her vent. If it is tight and dry she’s not that close to egg laying. I it is larger and moist she is probably not that far away.

The very best sign is when you see an egg. Hope you get that one soon.

 

[rdcowman]

My 6 Easter Eggers have stopped laying eggs. they stopped before the time change. my 11 Brown egg layers are laying. 3 of the Easter Eggers are molting, i thought it was odd though that scarlett just started molting a couple days ago, and it's been in the mid 40s in the afternoon and 20-30 degrees at night. 4 of them are 3 and half yrs old. and the other 2 are almost a year old. Any thoughts?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

A few of mine are just starting to molt and a few haven't started yet. I will see birds molting into December. They are fine even with half their feathers.

 

[dazluv1977]

I was ready to give up but my girls surprised me. At 21 weeks old they gave me the first two eggs. Now at 24 weeks old we are getting 6 eggs a day. No artificial light so far, but we have bought automatic timers to add lights later when the weather turns colder. I don't know if it will make a difference, but it probably won't hurt.