new to this so i will be asking a lot of ? are eggs from a hen layed at a certain time of day. morn. afternoon- night. or just when they feel like it. thanks jfoley spring hill fl.
I'm not an expert, I only started getting eggs about a month ago. But mine lay anywhere from 7 am to around noon, with most coming around 10 am. I have had a few eggs as late as 3pm, but most are laid before noon.
Our production reds and ISA Brown's have always begun lining up for the nesting boxes at 6:30 am and all have finished by 9:30. I collect at 10 am. Done. The various strains of red hens seem to have this down. Had Black Sex Links that laid throughout the day, but the straggler was no later than 3:30 pm.
Ours seem to have a pattern down. We can gather eggs around 3 or 4 and always seem to get them all that way.
They usually lay closer to every 25-26 hours, not every 24. So, beginning early in the morning, the time of day usually progresses over the next couple of days until she is laying mid-afternoon. After that, she 'resets', which usually takes a day, and then starts over again in early morning.
All day long, I can go out to the coop (25 hens) and find an egg or more almost any hour until dusk. No early layers, they are up a couple three hours before lines form for the nest boxes.
Until daylight savings time kicked in, my girls used to be so regular I could set my clock to chicken time. Now I get eggs anywhere from 9-11:00am. No afternoon layers in this flock. when the new chicks come online, I hope they will follow the cycle the other girls have set.
