what clues are there to know when a chicken is going to start laying eggs

[subhanalah]

Here were some of our pics: Store egg left / Our backyard egg right After saving up a weeks worth of eggs, our family had egg sandwiches on home made bread. (Our neighbor made us a sign for the coop. He now gets some eggs.) Here's when we first learned that our eggs were fertile! One of my favs: Our silly rooster trying to show the girls how to lay an egg. He even sings the egg song along with them.

I love it when the boys do that! Mine doesn't do it because he's afraid I'll try to pick him up and I'm always sitting next to the nest boxes.

 

[Faraday40]

I love it when the boys do that! Mine doesn't do it because he's afraid I'll try to pick him up and I'm always sitting next to the nest boxes.

I thought we just had a defective rooster. LOL He was never around other chickens since we hatched him.

 

[Melnurse]

Love reading all of the posts. We now have had 19 total eggs hatched, and our biggest days were yesterday and today (with 3 eggs each day). We have four hens, so I don't know if one is skipping days or if one of them just hasn't had her first, but we have had all size, and the blue EE is just so pretty and perfect and small. One of the girls had an egg that was fairly consistent with the size of a store bought egg, but since then, they've all been medium to small in size.

It is truly exciting. I"m considering a lemon meringue pie and a quiche this week now that we have enough.

Go girls!
Mel

 

[subhanalah]

Love reading all of the posts. We now have had 19 total eggs hatched, and our biggest days were yesterday and today (with 3 eggs each day). We have four hens, so I don't know if one is skipping days or if one of them just hasn't had her first, but we have had all size, and the blue EE is just so pretty and perfect and small. One of the girls had an egg that was fairly consistent with the size of a store bought egg, but since then, they've all been medium to small in size. It is truly exciting. I"m considering a lemon meringue pie and a quiche this week now that we have enough. Go girls! Mel

EEEEEEEEEEEEEE! How egg-citing!

 

[jtn42248]

Six of my girls have been laying eggs pretty regularly now for a couple of weeks and most of the others are beginning to act like they will soon. However, this a.m. when I let them out of their coop there were two eggs on the floor under the roost which I guess were dropped overnight or very early this a.m. The "problem" is that one was so thin shelled (like tissue paper) that it just collapsed when it hit the ground. The second was dropped with no shell, just the membrane that surrounds it inside the shell. Yesterday was really hot and our West Texas summer is really kicking in now so the heat will continue for a couple of months. Was this egg issue due to heat stress? I have oyster shell free choice at all times since they began to lay, they get Purina Flock Raiser available at all times as well. Yesterday I put electrolytes in their water also. And, about once a week I mix up ground egg shells into their food just to be sure they are getting the calcium they need.

I don't know which hens dropped these eggs but I do have a couple of Andalusians that act like they want to lay but their combs are still a grey/pink and not bright red like the other girls. I am also doing all the "keep them cool" things I can think of, frozen jugs of water, frozen fruit (we have a bumper crop of peaches this year so the culled peaches get cut up and frozen for the hens), misting and spraying their run so they have cool dirt to dig in and roll around in. Even pans of water that some of them like to stand in to cool down. Plus they have lots of shade. So, unless they dropped the eggs before they were really ready to lay I can't think of why this would happen other than the heat.

Any suggestions?

 

[Faraday40]

Two of my hens made shell-less eggs once in a while during their 1st 2 months of laying. (They were also just plopped under the roost.) We don't have the heat issues,instead ours were frozen blobs in the -40'F artic blast. It could be as simple as their bodies are just regulating. Making calcium available is a must, but you're already doing that. I was wondering if mine followed days when the hens ate more foraged food/ kitchen scraps & perhaps those particular hens never found the oyster shell. Whatever it was, they worked it out. I rarely find eggs anywhere but the nest boxes now.

It sounds like you're doing a great job keeping the hens cool.

 

[subhanalah]

Six of my girls have been laying eggs pretty regularly now for a couple of weeks and most of the others are beginning to act like they will soon. However, this a.m. when I let them out of their coop there were two eggs on the floor under the roost which I guess were dropped overnight or very early this a.m. The "problem" is that one was so thin shelled (like tissue paper) that it just collapsed when it hit the ground. The second was dropped with no shell, just the membrane that surrounds it inside the shell. Yesterday was really hot and our West Texas summer is really kicking in now so the heat will continue for a couple of months. Was this egg issue due to heat stress? I have oyster shell free choice at all times since they began to lay, they get Purina Flock Raiser available at all times as well. Yesterday I put electrolytes in their water also. And, about once a week I mix up ground egg shells into their food just to be sure they are getting the calcium they need.

I don't know which hens dropped these eggs but I do have a couple of Andalusians that act like they want to lay but their combs are still a grey/pink and not bright red like the other girls. I am also doing all the "keep them cool" things I can think of, frozen jugs of water, frozen fruit (we have a bumper crop of peaches this year so the culled peaches get cut up and frozen for the hens), misting and spraying their run so they have cool dirt to dig in and roll around in. Even pans of water that some of them like to stand in to cool down. Plus they have lots of shade. So, unless they dropped the eggs before they were really ready to lay I can't think of why this would happen other than the heat.

Any suggestions?

are you using ACV or BOSS?

 

[jtn42248]

No...I read someplace, maybe here, not to use ACV, BOSS, Corn, etc in the heat because they actually increase the birds body temp...and ACV does something the weakens or reduces their calcium. They just get their frozen treats, ice in water, misting, balanced non-antibiotic commercial feed, free range several times a day (mostly a.m. and p.m. in the heat) frozen water jugs. They have oyster shell available at all times and clean, clear, cool drinking water replaced several times a day. Right now I am adding electrolytes to their water once every 3-5 days to help with heat stress.

 

[subhanalah]

No...I read someplace, maybe here, not to use ACV, BOSS, Corn, etc in the heat because they actually increase the birds body temp...and ACV does something the weakens or reduces their calcium. They just get their frozen treats, ice in water, misting, balanced non-antibiotic commercial feed, free range several times a day (mostly a.m. and p.m. in the heat) frozen water jugs. They have oyster shell available at all times and clean, clear, cool drinking water replaced several times a day. Right now I am adding electrolytes to their water once every 3-5 days to help with heat stress.

have you wormed them ever?

 

[jtn42248]

It sounds like you're doing a great job keeping the hens cool.

I try my best but the poor things still just pant and fluff out their feathers to stay cool. Someone on here said they bought their hens a small AC unit. I am not doing that yet but I am rigging several fans to move more air around. They have a small fan in their coop but it just is not doing any good so I am hanging fans outside directed at moving shade and mist cooled air into their coop. Now I have to be concerned about humidity levels. Oh well, if it is not one thing it is another.