New layers ... how many days will they lay?

[ChickenLady♡]

I have 12 birds - 10 of them are 19 to 22 weeks so expecting eggs anyday. The other 2 are araucana / leghorn crosses that I bought 3 weeks ago. They had just started laying (lovely blue eggs) when I got them. The first week or so (from 2 birds) I had 2 -2 -2 -1 -2 -2 -1 - 2 - 2 -1 eggs. Since then there have been 2 eggs a day for 13 consecutive days (so someone has been laying at least 16 consecutive days).

Is this normal? How many days in a row have yours laid?

 

[Perris]

there's a lot of variation when they start, and ongoing actually. Can you tell who lays which egg or are they identical?

 

[ChickenLady♡]

there's a lot of variation when they start, and ongoing actually. Can you tell who lays which egg or are they identical?

There are only the 2 laying at the moment. Both lay identical blue eggs.

 

[Perris]

one of mine laid 11 in a row when she started, but is settling into 5 on 1 off pattern, and my araucanas perform very differently (1 great layer, 1 poor), so my inclination is just to rejoice in your good fortune! (and leghorns are very good performers usually)

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Well, let's look at what is typical and what is possible. From ovulation it takes about 25 hours for a hen to form an egg after ovulation. Typically, it may take at least a half hour after passing an egg for the next yolk to drop into the infundibulum. For an extremely productive bird like a leghorn, let's say you get an egg from one hen at 3 pm, 4 pm the next day, 5 pm the next. This time of year with short days, the next egg that would have come at 6 and each that would normally come an hour later each day are held till the next morning. So the hen has to skip a day.
So the eggs that would have developed at night will be laid first thing in the morning for the next as many as perhaps 12 or 13 days. Then they will come an hour later each day till they have to skip a day.
Potentially they may lay 20 to 23 days in a row before they have to skip a day again. That's how you get documentation of extremely productive hens laying 300+ eggs a year and the record of an Australorp that laid 364 eggs in a year.

 

[ChickenLady♡]

Potentially they may lay 20 to 23 days in a row before they have to skip a day again. That's how you get documentation of extremely productive hens laying 300+ eggs a year and the record of an Australorp that laid 364 eggs in a year.

Thanks, good advice. I'm in Australia so we're having extra long days now. They both tend to lay at about 10.30 to 11.00am so I think their cycles must be a bit shorter. I just figure they've still got their 'L' plates on and things will smooth out.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

OK, I was thinking northern hemisphere. But the cycle is still the same. You're having your longest days but they are getting shorter. Depending on their age, the ones already laying may molt soon and take a break from laying. If they are under 18 months, they may lay right through.

 

[aart]

Had bird lay 49 days, 1 day break, then 34, 20, 6, 13, 16, 4, 13, 42..then I stopped recording.