No eggs at 17 weeks

[EggSighted4Life]

Ya, I heard that whole 16 week thing.. I think it's a con to trick us into buying them, what many consider a plain ol chicken.. Though mine ended up being a favorite of everyone she was definitely closer to 22 weeks..

 

[chickity-chick]

How egg-citing!
Consider the wait like waiting for a Newborn to be delivered. Lol
You mentioned you have hay in your boxes. It has been found to have Pine shavings as the preferred choice. It allows them to wiggle themselves down onto your fake eggs. You will also hear her make more noises as the egg is traveling down the "shoot". LOL
It will be/could be small, irregular shape and have alittle blood on it.
You will/could a "Fairy" egg where she gives you a double yoke. That will end after a bit of routine laying so, enjoy the surprise of a double yoke. I always feel "Lucky" when I get one anymore.
My one RIR screamed the entire time during her first egg laying experience. I gave her a Big Fat juicy nightcrawler after that! I'm a labor Nurse and wanted to help her but could not. It was terrible for me too! Lol
Afterwards, I picked her and "preened" her and she leaned into my chest. I told her how proud I was of her. Now, she lays Everyday without fail even in this 100 degree Florida heat.
Let us know and of course post a picture of your new laying Pullet.
I will be waiting to hear all about it.

AWE your RIR sounds adorable. What a good baby

 

[chickity-chick]

May also depend on how much daylight you are getting in your location. This time of year days are getting shorter so less eggs are laid naturally. You could use supplemental lighting to get the hours of daylight closer to 14 hours (I believe that is for optimum laying- please do your own research) if you want to force the issue. Some are opposed to this, I don't use it being in AZ.

Also have you started to mix in layer feed yet?

I was wondering about lighting as well. I get 12.5 hours of day light here and my pullets have red combs but have yet to start laying. I wonder if they will wait to lay even though they are 20 weeks old...

 

[U_Stormcrow]

One egg today. On the ground in the 12 sq ft between the hen house and the gate to the run.

 

[Flame80]

Drinkoj, I have been talking to them every day and showing them pictures of nice big fat watermelons but no luck yet. ( My motivational speaker has been out of town)!! Like you 2 of my 6 are huge red combs and the rest are starting to come along!!

 

[drinkoj]

Flame80
This one has gotta pop one it soon. Guessing she’ll do it over the weekend when we are out of town LOL

 

[TheOddOneOut]

17 weeks is a bit early.

 

[Gonzalezfam]

20 weeks 5days my first leghorn egg 7 days later my other leghorn started to lay, give it time started squatting 5 days before they laid egg song 3 days before they laid, give it time, soon as they started I’ve gotten an egg everyday been bout month and a half now.

 

[drinkoj]

UPDATE...Just came in from checking chickens and WE WIN!!! Found one egg in the middle of 3 nesting boxes I made. I left it in there to see if I could figure out which bird laid it. Also I took a picture of it beside a store bought Grade A Large egg and I would have to call it a medium. Don't believe it is a small. Remember I was raised on a egg farm of 1500 hens. I had to grade every one of those eggs. Hah! Drinkoj, you won't be far behind!! Now what did I do with that watermelon?? P>S> egg shell is very strong and a good "egg" shape!!

WOOT WOOT!
Funny moment yesterday that I'll share since your's laid an egg first. So yesterday my wife went out to open the coop door and checked the 3 nesting boxes which we have 1 golf ball in each nest. When she looked in them she saw 3 white golf balls and a brown egg!
Now what I forgot to tell my wife the night before was that while I was cleaning around the yard I found one of my neighbors practice golf balls buried in the ground behind the run and decided to through it into one of the nesting boxes.
So when I woke up in the morning I asked the Mrs. if we had any eggs, she was not to happy with me as she got excited and then disappointed in the dirty golf ball I added to the nest, thinking it was an brown egg from the ISA Brown.

 

[drinkoj]

I just skimmed the thread so I apologize if I missed this, but if you haven’t already switched their feed already you need to do so. Either to layer feed or an all-flock, but if you do all-flock you should provide a calcium supplement such as oyster shells.

Think all of us who first posted & responded to the thread originally have gotten eggs now, I was the last. We all got the layer/oyster choice going. But that's a good point for @bigred-77 , as s/he needs to be offering free choice oyster shell because of the goldens needing it and those other four pullets being about 2 months away from needing calcium from the oyster shell.