Time of day?

[NCChickenChick]

What time of day do your chickens normally lay?

I've found mine lay between noon and 4:30 PM. It's strange I always thought it would be earlier in the day.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Time varies for mine. Chickens lay an egg about every 26hrs-if they were to lay every day. So....they may start early and it gradually become later in the day.

 

[bajabirdbrain]

Ours usually have 1 egg by 8am and the rest mostly by noon. Might get one in the afternoon. Our 11 girls are 9 months old and this time of year we are getting about 3 to 5 daily. We don't have much daylight up here in WA this time of year but we have a string of lights around half of the ceiling of the coop come on about 5:30am to help them get up!!!

 

[Honeybee22]

I have plenty of nesting boxes, but they all insist on using the same one. Because of this they all line up like it's the women's restroom and I get a steady stream of eggs from 8am to about noon. (I swear... it's ridiculous. They stand in line squawking at the one in the box to hurry it up.)

Every so often I'll get a late egg in the afternoon.

 

[8 Chicks 1967]

yeah, really ...it's between first crow and last call. I've had a hen lose and egg on the way to........the roost poll. seriously.

 

[PetitePlume]

From my 2 hens last summer one was on the clock. The egg was laid by 7am. The other 2 were laying between 10 and 2pm.

 

[ChickNanny13]

I have 4 BOs that are 38wks old, laying since October ... 1 or 2 will lay between 7 - 11am and the other 2 by 2pm.

 

[aart]

Time varies for mine. Chickens lay an egg about every 26hrs-if they were to lay every day. So....they may start early and it gradually become later in the day.

Same here...and then they may skip a day, after laying late in day they won't release another ova until the next morning.

I had a pullet(who is just back to laying after a semi-broody event) in the nest at lock up the other day, put her on the roost, she went back to nests, I tried to chase her off by putting my hands thru the back access, then let her go as it wasn't full dark yet. Went out an hour or so later and she was in nest, took her out, put her on the roost and her egg dropped onto the (thankfully clean) poop board. I felt terrible, hope I haven't instilled 'nest terror' on her little brain. She didn't lay the nest day(yesterday), hoping to find and early one from her today. SMH.

I have plenty of nesting boxes, but they all insist on using the same one.

Put some fake eggs/golf balls in the other nests...that often helps to 'spread the love'.

 

[GC-Raptor]

I open the coop and turn on the lights at 5am daily. I have found 2 eggs in nests and 1 under roosts at that time. Most of the time its 1 egg in nest or a hen. Today a hen was in nest at 5am.
Most days all the eggs I'll get, will be in the nest boxes by 9am. One or two days a week I'll find an egg, or 2 at 1pm or lockup after sunset.
My hens are Golden Comets, a sex-links type of chicken. They have always been energetic, wanting to get the egg laying done early. GC

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Same here...and then they may skip a day, after laying late in day they won't release another ova until the next morning.

I had a pullet(who is just back to laying after a semi-broody event) in the nest at lock up the other day, put her on the roost, she went back to nests, I tried to chase her off by putting my hands thru the back access, then let her go as it wasn't full dark yet. Went out an hour or so later and she was in nest, took her out, put her on the roost and her egg dropped onto the (thankfully clean) poop board. I felt terrible, hope I haven't instilled 'nest terror' on her little brain. She didn't lay the nest day(yesterday), hoping to find and early one from her today. SMH.

@aart Poor pullet! "Nest terror"

I have an 8mo White Leghorn - that little thing has laid an egg everyday since she was 19wks She is a really good example of the egg about every 26hrs. Say she lays 1 today at 8am, tomorrow's will be around 10-11am and so forth. She lays a little later each day, then begins again...she's been very interesting to watch (plus she's just plain fun!)