sex-links not laying frequently at first? Normal?

[duckcreekfarm]

This is my first season with laying hens (I always raised meat birds.)
I have 14 Buff Orpintons about 21 weeks old, couple roosters
3 ISA brown about 22 weeks old
1 random banty hen that my mom gave me, about 2 years old
11 Welsummers about 16 weeks old, 2 roosters

The banty hen lays regularly, nice sized eggs given her size. They are pinkish.
The ISAs just started 3 days ago. I got 2 beautiful eggs, MUCH darker than I expected and beautifully speckled. They were the size of the banty hens eggs. If you bought them at the store they would probably be labelled medium.

BUT they have not laid an egg since then. When I checked them this morning they were sitting in their nest boxes. I thought a production bird would lay more frequently in the beginning? Is this due to age or maybe a feed issue? everyone is on layer mash plus table scraps, they have pens but are not free range due to heavy predators in the area.

 

[AA Maple]

I have 6 "comet" RSL hens that just came up to that age and from the 6 I started getting 2 a day for about a week, then 3 a day, then 2 and one soft shell, then 3 than 4, then 3 then 4 again.

The guy from whom I bought them is only getting about 80 a day out of 300 hens he bought at the same time, though he suspects they're too hot in his barn.

According to my guy (who keeps about 1500 Comets) they take a little bit to get into daily laying and the eggs will get larger as the birds stretch out to accommodate.

 

[donrae]

All new layers, regardless of breed, can take a month or so to really hit their stride. Sporadic laying is quite common at first, as are the smaller eggs. it won't be long before they're churning out nice large eggs pretty much daily, they just need to work all the kinks out of their new systems first.