Nurture vs. Nature?

[gypsygirl1421]

I have a question maybe someone here can answer. I got 30 chicks Feb. 17. I kept 9, 4 EE's and 5 Red stars. I gave 5 to my friend, 3 EE's and 2 Red Stars. I admit, I spoil mine rotten to the point that if I so much as look out the window into my back yard the hens all run over and look up at me. I got my first egg on May 22nd. I have gotten about 4 dozen eggs since then, ave about 3 per day. My girlfriend has yet to see a single egg or even a hen thinking about laying an egg. We buy the same food, but I probably give more treats and spend a lot of time sitting there and petting them while hers are more on their own. Is there any reason hers haven't started yet? These girls are the same age. I gave the hens to her when they were 4 weeks old. Everthing else is the same, we live 10 miles from each other, they all to go outside a lot, etc. She thinks it may be because I have more hens but why would that make a difference? What do you gus think?

 

[dangerouschicken]

I have no idea. I got 10 pullet chicks the same time as you, and mine still aren't laying either. Who knows?

 

[riderbecky]

I tried responding to this earlier and had a power failure...so I'll try to remember what I was saying in my first attempt.

I grabbed my trusty calendar and counted the weeks from Feb 17(I'm assuming here that you had day old chicks, you don't specify).... at the time of your first egg on May 22 your chicks would be about 13 wks. That is very early.

From what I've read here most pullets start laying around 20 wks, give or take.

Back to my calendar again, 20 wks is around mid-July. That means your friend shouldn't start to worry until after then but by which time she'll be proudly announcing first eggs.

Mind you, all the above is based on my assumption that you got day old chicks and not older birds.

Interestingly enough...I watched a documentary about nature vs. nuture that was done on hemaphrodite(sp?) children...and the findings are that nature wins and nuture misapplied can cause some serious pshchological problems. But that is a topic for another thead.