Should I be getting eggs

[Norm2475]

I bought 6 chicks in July. 3 golden sex links and 3 production reds. They say they are good layers. From what I understood I would be getting eggs in about 4 months. I have not. I am now thinking about putting a light in my coop. I hear that helps but some people I know that had chickens in the past say I wont have eggs until spring that the chicks are to young. That would suck to have to wait 9 months for eggs. Any information would help.

 

[cajunlizz]

well , light in coop DOES HELP ..... I went from picking 5 - 6 eggs a day to close to 2 dozen since I put lights in both my coops . Don't feel discouraged if they are not laying , I bought 1 week old chicks in April and they just started laying about a couple of weeks ago . Are they on laying pellets ?

I started ALL mine on laying pellets around 20 weeks old

 

[sunnydee]

Yes...adding some light time will help with the egg laying. Are they showing signs of laying? Do they have access to their laying boxes yet?

 

[chickorama]

Chickens really don't lay all that much in the winter. While we get about 18 eggs out of 20 chickens in the summer, in the winter we get about 5 out of 20. If you have a whole flock it would be surprising, but if you only have 4-5 chickens you probably won't get many eggs.

 

[cajunlizz]

COLD FRONT CAME THRU ... Wind chill is horrible


Its 10:00 AM and i already picked 9 eggs so far ,.......

 

[sunnydee]

I have 6 chickens and live in Maine...where it gets very cold. I get 4 to 5 eggs every single day! I have a red heat lamp during day and nothing at night.

 

[Norm2475]

I have straw in the coops and you can tell they are making little nest. I am working on the boxes now.
They have been eating laying mesh mixed with some cracked corn for a little over a month.

 

[digitS']

Norm, it would have been surprising if they'd layed in 4 months and probably not a real good thing either. Six months isn't at all unusual. Outdoors, birds lay eggs in the Spring and they are "geared" to not lay during decreasing light.

My birds are mostly inside a fully-insulated coop at this time of year. The only light is from a light bulb. I began turning it on for them in October when the daylight fell below 11 hours. They were Spring chicks and began laying in November.

The 4 pullets are now laying 23 eggs each week. Three weeks in a row - 23 eggs! I don't know how they can be so consistent

.

Laying hens can completely shut down egg production with less than 8 hours of light each day. A lot of folks go for 12 hours or even a few hours more but if you want consistent egg production, you gotta be consistent with their lighting.

Steve