New layer is being very sporadic? Reason for concern?

[Falcon Chickens]

Hello everyone.
We have three chicks that just started laying over the past month. The first one, a Red Star has only missed one or two days since she began laying on December 27th. Our second Red Star has only missed one day of laying since she began on January 3rd. Our most recent chick to begin laying, a Buff Orpington, began laying on January 10th, and has only laid like 6 eggs in the last two weeks. She has missed 8 days, and has missed the last 3 days straight. All of the eggs that she has laid are pretty small, especially compared to the Red Stars' eggs.

We are starting to worry about her, particularly because she's missed so many days straight now. She doesn't seem to act like anything is wrong, so we haven't yet been thinking about her being egg-bound, but maybe we should be worried.

These are our first chickens, so we are pretty inexperienced. We're hoping that this isn't that much of an uncommon issue with new layers. Maybe it's a Buff Orp thing? Anyone experienced this?

Thanks for sharing any experience or advise. I'm hoping that you're not going to tell me to get out the KY and feel around just yet.

Falcon Chickens

 

[Crysta]

Some chicken breeds are known to lay more often than other breeds. I've read its normal for chickens to not lay as often when they first start. From my experience, the eggs got bigger as time goes on. The first few eggs shouldn't be expected to be perfect and as often.

Also keep in mind that it might be still cold where you are and the day light hours are short. This time of the year isn't prime conditions for egg laying.

You might want to look around the yard to see if she is laying somewhere besides the nesting box, somewhere where it is dark, shady and private like under a bush.

I wouldn't be worried about her not laying unless you notice she is acting irregular.

 

[Falcon Chickens]

Thanks for your reply, Crysta. She skipped another day after I initially posted my question, so ended up skipping 4 straight days. Ended up laying a small one yesterday, finally, but it was still a very small egg. We will continue to watch her for any odd behavior, but she's still acting like she's fine.

 

[Happy Chooks]

It's normal for a new layer to be sporadic. Sometimes, their bodies just need extra time to get in the swing of laying. Just as every person matures at a different rate, so do pullets.