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

[kari_dawn]

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!!

 

[serenityNH]

I feel your pain. Mine will be 23 weeks old in a couple of days and no signs of eggs, I check a dozen times a day hoping....

 

[cravenchx]

Glad to know I'm not the only one waiting.
I feel like a father in an old movie, pacing in
the waiting room.

 

[kari_dawn]

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!

 

[Davian]

LOL...you'll definitely hear them when they start laying. New layers are usually obnoxiously loud.

 

[cathyb68]

Ok, so my chickens were born May 20. They are certainly old enough to be laying eggs by now. Right? But I have yet to see the first egg. I have 4 Buff Orpingtons, 4 Barred Plymoth Rocks, 2 Dominiques, 1 Speckled Sussex, 2 Americaunas, 1 Redsexlink (we think, not sure as she was suppose to be a Buff Orp) and 1 either Black Jersy Giant or Black Australorp (she was suppose to be a Barred Rock). I wonder if they aren't laying since they don't get 14 hours of daylight. Would adding a light in the coop on a timer help? I love my chickens and will do whatever I need to do to help them be productive layers.

Thanks in advance for your advice

Cathy

 

[kari_dawn]

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.

 

[cathyb68]

Mine haven't stopped laying. They have never started! I would have thought by now that we would have eggs. Just didn't know if I needed to do something to get them going.

 

[kari_dawn]

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....

 

[cathyb68]

Thanks. It's nice to know it's not just my chickens that aren't "ready" yet. I lined the bottom of their nest boxes with squares of their feed bags with some straw on top. I have found the squares out in the pen with the straw still inside the box. I know they are going in them, just no eggs yet. Guess we will just keep playing the waiting game. lol