No Eggs???

[BawkinOnTheBench]

Me too - 21 weeks and no eggs. About 6 weeks ago one of my pullets' combs turned red and her wattles started to grow - I thought "Oh boy, any day now!" The other 2 have now turned red and started to grow in about the last 3 weeks. The first one's comb is now starting to flop over (they are Leghorns). As I keep telling my daughter - every day is one day closer. I'm sure it's just the shortening days that's postponing the happy event.

 

[MissPrissy]

What most new chicken owners do not understand is that the 18 - 22 week age of laying is primarily based on a production laying hen. Most chickens often fail to read their instruction manual and choose not to lay that early. Large breeds take even longer. I have had some take 32+ weeks before their first eggs. Shortened daylight, lack of substantial proteins (chickens are omnivores - vegetarian diets are not the best means of nutrition for them), and their own natural cycles make it nearly impossible to predict the onset of egg laying. The larger breeds spend more energy building body structure and size than producing eggs at an early age. The average eggs per year for many chickens is around 240 - 265 eggs in a year. That leaves a lot of down time for rejunivation and rest of the reproductive systems. Chickens are not little biological machines that spit out one egg a day from 18 weeks until they giev out. Be patient. Don't put your backyard hens in the same playing feild as a production layer and don't make your selves look like commercial producers who want only some eggs at whatever cost to the birds.

 

[Curlita]

I have four hens. The earliest laying one was just shy of 22 weeks, and the other two started at 23 and 24 weeks respectively. One hasn't started laying at all, at 24 weeks. Be patient! It will happen!

 

[TheOLDNewChick]

Very well said, MP!

 

[suburban farm girl]

Yay Miss Prissy ! I knew eventually someone with some chicken sense

would see this topic and offer their wisdom. Thank you so much.

Now, I feel kind of silly asking this, but an earlier post in this thread referred to the color of the pullets' combs as indication that they were getting ready to begin laying. I have never heard this before !

If I understood the post correctly, the comb and waddle needs to be developed, and will be red rather than pink when they are mature enough to begin laying? Is that right?

Don't know how I missed that important info...