the [egg] wait is driving me crazy!!!

So, my big girls are hitting the 20 week mark, but their combs and behaviors do not indicate they are thinking about eggs....but there are BLRW feathers in the nest box...so SOMEONE has been in there. Gah! Way to get my hopes up! Quit teasing me!!

 

ha ha me too! Except the frustration extends to not even seeing any signs that eggs are in the near future, and Im STILL getting anxous anyway!

 

You will get varying oppinions on suplemental light. I am of the school of let nature take care of her own. I do not provide light for my girls, nor do I provide heat in the winter (though this summer I provided a mister...temps in excess of 100 degrees nearly all summer, and I did not want to risk loosing anyone), just a draft free area stuffed full of straw for them.

I feel like there is a reason that hens stop laying in the winter (her body needs a break too!), and from what I understand, suplementally providing light in shorter winter months may cause a hen to reach her drop in production at an earlier age anyway.

 

ha ha I should have clarified. I was talking generally about chickens. I saw that your girls have not started laying...mine either (by the way, my girls were hatched right around the same time as yours!). When they haven't started yet, it is just a waiting game. It will all happen when they are ready. I have done things like offering them crushed oyster shell, preparing the nest box and making it available to them, thrown in a couple of fake eggs, and started offering them layer mash, and black oil sunflower seeds, mixed with a little hen scratch...when you are on pullet time, everything goes very slow. I have never had a pullet start laying right at the 22 week mark....