Official BYC Poll - At what age did your hen(s) start laying?

[h c hennery]

Red Star ~ 22.5 weeks
Buff Orpington ~ 27.5 weeks
Barred Rock ~ 30.5 weeks

 

[Secondof9]

Dominique, buff Orpington and one of my Wyandottes began last week at the 25 week mark. I believe the other Wyandotte has yet to lay and she's now 26 weeks. She's been last at everything so far. LOL. Oh well. All in good time.

 

[Cindycon]

My Swedish flower chickens lay every day so far and they started to lay about 20 weeks. The 2 barnvelder hens- one is laying and the other is a freeloader. The barnvelder layed at 24 weeks. Do the freeloaders ever start producing?

I bought 2 EEs in Aug that were born in Mar. They both started laying 4-5 blue eggs/wk end of Sept. But I also have 2 SLW, 3 Cochin born midMay freeloading as well as 1 bantam Cochin and another EE born April freeloading. We feed soy-free organic. Grrrr. But the blue eggs are making up for it right now

What's EE?

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

What's EE?

Easter Egger.

 

[Mrs. Tweedy]

Mine are all EE's, I hatch my own, I get varied start times from 4 months to 1 YO, anywhere in that time frame. This years young girls, only 1 is laying at 5 MO, a couple more are getting close.

How do you know when they are getting close? I have 2 Rhode Islands and 2 Australorps who are approximately 6.5 months. As far as I can tell only one RI is laying sporadically and only when she is able to escape the coop. Our older RI stopped laying about 5 months ago, think she was molting then. Will she start again soon? She looks to be finished molting.

 

[aart]

How do you know when they are getting close?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/who-is-laying-and-who-is-not-butt-check.73309/

 

[adstowe]

I'm pretty sure I could safely click every one of the options, but with my older girls all molting I could pound that "I have freeloaders" into the ground

 

[RWise]

How do you know when they are getting close? I have 2 Rhode Islands and 2 Australorps who are approximately 6.5 months. As far as I can tell only one RI is laying sporadically and only when she is able to escape the coop. Our older RI stopped laying about 5 months ago, think she was molting then. Will she start again soon? She looks to be finished molting.

When they get close, their combs will turn a vibrant red, if you have a rooster they will squat for him to mount them.
As to laying, if you are in the northern side of the planet the days have grown to short, the girls have shut down, added light (I prefer morning) to get about 14 hours per day should get them laying again. I use 13.5 hours, this keeps enuf girls active to give me the eggs I need/want.

Edit, I use this site,you will need to give it your location, as it is set to mine in the link.
https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/tulsa

 

[Secondof9]

Dominique, buff Orpington and one of my Wyandottes began last week at the 25 week mark. I believe the other Wyandotte has yet to lay and she's now 26 weeks. She's been last at everything so far. LOL. Oh well. All in good time.

Update: I meant to post this quite a while back - the second Wyandotte finally began laying at 9 months of age! But she lays 6 eggs a week, sometimes a 3 ounce double yolk egg - I got 2 of those this week.

 

[Folly's place]

Thanks for the update!