Peer Pressure

[CowgirlPenny]

I'm trying to figure out how to entice my other hens to lay. They are all the same age. I have a BSL that's laid a nice big light brown egg everyday for 8 days. I have two more BSL with combs just as red as her's. Plus 9 others. Everyone 'looks' ready (except 2) they act ready and everything but they never even check out the nestboxes. Don't get me wrong...getting an egg a day is nice but to get like 7 a day would be better. LOL I have 3 kids and just for bacon and eggs I need atleast 9 eggs. I'm trying really hard not to buy any from the store! So, is my BSL just a rare freak who's laying early or are the others going to catch on any day now? They are all 18, almost 19wks old.

I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a pretty fake brown egg for each nestbox. It did seem to help my one that lays (she used to kick all the bedding out and lay in the back corner) now she leaves all the bedding and lays it right next to the fake one. I have 5 nestboxes for 12 hens too so plenty of room. I guess I thought they would see her in there, wonder what she's doing and go check out the nestboxes. No luck yet.

 

[SpringChickens]

They'll lay when they're ready

No way to push them sooner, especially in the middle of summer. If your one started though, the rest probably aren't far behind!!

 

[gryeyes]

The absolute answer to when a pullet begins to lay rests on her readiness to do so. And not a minute sooner.

They will lay when they are ready to lay.

(I didn't mean to make that sound imperative and snarky, honest. It's just the way it is.)

The wait seems eternal, but you really don't want to "push" pullets into early laying - it's not good for them. BSLs are already "engineered" to be production birds, so they generally lay earlier than many other breeds. I don't even pay attention to how many weeks it takes for a particular pullet to lay her first egg. When her body is ready, she'll start laying.