Topic of the Week - When Do Pullets Begin Laying?

[QueenMisha]

Heh. Chickens lay whenever they want to. Latest layer I've had is my 9.5 month old SQ Silkie girl Taylor, who just started this week. Earliest I've seen wasn't mine but a friend's, 16 week old Easter Egger (of all things!)

 

[shelbyw]

Wow! 9.5 months is the oldest I have heard of for a pullet, but I am still new to all this chicken stuff. I have only have chickens for a couple years.

 

[AustralorpsAU]

I bought my Aussie girls as 20 week old pullets and i think a couple were already laying as mine laid an egg two days after being brought back a 3 hour journey. They other one laid a week later and my Ancona took her tome and laid about 2 months later but it was winter so they have done pretty well laying almost every day!

 

[ADVaughn]

As a first time chicken keeper, I was sooo impatiently waiting for my first eggs. I have 12 in all. 6 American buff orpintons, 3 silver laced wyandottes, and 3 barred rocks. All hatchery birds. My first layers were buffs, starting at 20 weeks. 3 of them are laying so far, but none of the others yet.

Around 13-14 weeks, I saw reddening in the face of a few, which spread to the combs and wattles. Their combs began to grow enormous and quickly. At about 16 weeks, I noticed some nesting behaviors. Between then and the first egg, there were submission squats, and egg song practice.

My first layer came about a week and a half before the second, and nearly another week before the third began. I'm still egg-cited everytime I get an egg, and we've gotten just over a dozen so far.

On a side note, my first layer named Honey is still laying about a medium sized egg and she reliably camps out in the nest box off and on sometimes for a few hours before she passes it. Her sister Melina lays a large to extra large egg, and does it within an hour, however the larger eggs caused a small prolapse of her vent which I caught because of blood streaks on her eggs. Hers wasn't serious, though. Indeed, she laid a jumbo yesterday. You might keep a tube of original preparation H on hand just in case.

Enjoy your first eggs, and treat your girls for laying them!

So, how do you handle the prolapse issue when it occurs??

 

[chuckachucka]

I have an Aseel (a breed from southeast Asia) hen who was the only girl in a clutch of six eggs I hatched. She is quite a small hen and laid her first egg at 24 weeks. After that she laid fifteen eggs in seventeen days and went broody. Fast forward a few weeks and we now have nine adorable chicks who are two weeks old. It will be interesting to see when she starts laying again and if she will go broody again later!

 

[Toddyboy007]

We've got three Plymouth Rock bantams which I've worked out are around 21 weeks (breeder wasn't sure if the age when we bought them). They've still not shown any signs of breeding and when I open the nest boxes to them they stop perching so have closed them back off.
I'm based in the UK where the days are getting shorter already so wondering if I'll see any eggs this year. Can anyone confirm if this is likely to be the case and does anyone know if bantams can take longer to start laying?

 

[Trish1974]

Like Toddyboy007 I have also been wondering... will I see eggs this year from my 5 month old pullets since the days are getting shorter (and no supplemental lighting in their coop)?

 

[GranolaLight]

We have two Rhode Island Reds and two Barred Rock, and they were all born on April 19. The smallest one, which is a Rhode Island, started laying on August 18, and I did notice her squatting, but was unaware that it meant she would start laying. The other three, which are much larger than her, haven't started yet, and it's been a few weeks.

She has been laying almost an egg a day, but they have mostly been at night while roosting. I snuck out this morning at 5 AM and moved her to the nest box, which she roosted on the lip of, and she had an egg in there when I went back at 7 to turn on the lights and let them out for the day. Another thing I find cool is that none of them would eat any of my composting worms at all, but since she started laying, she has been gobbling them, and almost anything else she can get, non-stop.

I can't wait for the mealworms to be ready.

Chris

 

[dunnmom]

@ADVaughn I just googled hen vent prolapse, and a bunch of helpful sites came up like this one. http://www.mypetchicken.com/backyard-chickens/chicken-help/Vent-prolapse-overview-H263.aspx
My pullet's prolapse was probably the least severe case, so all I did was put Preparation H in and around her vent and it went back on its own. Still watching it though, and disposing of her eggs until there's no more medicine in her vent. It hasn't popped back out so far. I read it can be bad enough to warrant a surgery, or putting the hen down. I guess we were lucky.

 

[AmandaMBG]

I've been able to harvest a handful of my mealies a day to put in their feed in the morning and my one hen gets in the bowl and probably consumes half of them herself

We have two Rhode Island Reds and two Barred Rock, and they were all born on April 19. The smallest one, which is a Rhode Island, started laying on August 18, and I did notice her squatting, but was unaware that it meant she would start laying. The other three, which are much larger than her, haven't started yet, and it's been a few weeks.

She has been laying almost an egg a day, but they have mostly been at night while roosting. I snuck out this morning at 5 AM and moved her to the nest box, which she roosted on the lip of, and she had an egg in there when I went back at 7 to turn on the lights and let them out for the day. Another thing I find cool is that none of them would eat any of my composting worms at all, but since she started laying, she has been gobbling them, and almost anything else she can get, non-stop.

I can't wait for the mealworms to be ready.

Chris