What is the earliest a chicken can possibly lay?

[chilling in muscadine]

WOW!!!! That just blow's me away. Enjoy. PEACE

 

[chook-in-eire]

Sorry if I'm a party-pooper but it's not really good for pullets to lay that early. It puts a lot of strain on their as yet underdeveloped 'laying apparatus'.
Hence the switch from the very high-protein chick starter/grower to pullet grower at 8 weeks; kind of puts the breaks on and lets the bird mature properly before laying commences.
Most of my Barnevelders start laying around the 26 wk mark. Last year I hatched some early, in February, and they started laying at about 20 weeks. Even at a year old the eggs still haven't fully reached the standard minimum weight for Barnie hatching eggs which is 60g, whereas the ones that start laying around 26 wks as they should reach the 60g weight within 6-8 weeks.
So it may be nice to get eggs early but in the long run it's a loss not a gain.

chook

 

[smom1976]

well other than lowering their protien.. enjoy it..

I cant wait for my girls to lay..
they will be 8 weeks on the 27th and growing nicely

 

[seriousbill]

Quote:
Hello Chook,

It's good to see your name here (I'm familiar with your posting from another board). I'm sure we can all benefit from your expertise. If I take your meaning right, one might begin to see certain other difficulties (besides egg weight) down the road with a pullet that begins too early. Any ideas on what sort of other problems might arise?

 

[chook-in-eire]

Hi seriousbill,

Gail Damerow, in Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens, writes that a pullet that starts laying too early may experience egg binding or prolapse.
Other problems can be partial moults and neck moults out of season. I haven't experienced this but have seen it mentioned on breeder's websites / in forums.
Commercial feed supplier websites sometimes make reference to this issue as well, stressing that pullets should not start laying too early: feeding regimes aim at the hens being of a breed-specific minimum weight by the time they start laying. If they are underweight at that point eggs will be too small and the pullets more prone to illnesses.
Old poultry books similarly distinguish 'growth-forming' from 'forcing' foods.

HTH
chook

ps. which forum?

 

[seriousbill]

Ah, very interesting. Thanks for the information. I've certainly been rather lax in my feeding technique with point-of-lay pullets. I was largely unaware of these issues, although I knew that there were points at which one should switch feed, etc. I did not fully realize the potential repercussions for continuing a higher-protein diet.

The forum was The Coop.

 

[speckledhen]

I read that, too, Janet. Hi, Chook! My problem is that I dont really have any grower available here. I did pick up some turkey grower once, though. It had 17% protein.

 

[horsejody]

Somebody laid a little pullet egg for me about a week ago. I have a little brown sex link that would have been about 14 weeks old at the time. I also have Jersey Giants, some white egg layers and some older birds. The JG's aren't mature enough yet so it wasn't them. The egg was brown so it wasn't the white egg layers. I had an egg to from each of my older ones (even my geriatric hen) on that day so it wasn't them either. I assume it is my little sexlink pullet that left it. It was just laid in the middle of the floor, so that shows some inexperience. I am very proud of her. She laid before the white leghorns did, and they are the same age.

Edited to add: FYI - my birds are not on a super high protein diet

 

[SeaChick]

For what it's worth, I got a "pullet egg" the other day, too..... but there were no pullets in the coop! My 1 year old Australorp had laid it and it had a broken yolk inside. Outside, it looked like a perfect little pullet egg, about as long as a quarter.

 

[Rosalind]

Well, they are on layer pellets now. I'm kinda stuck here if I have to switch them to low protein: I have two areas in the barn that are set up for chickens, one large (about 10x12') and one small (about 6x8'). Originally I had the pullets in the small area with their Cochin foster mom and the rest of the adult hens and roos in the large area. However, I noticed that the adult hens in the large pen were seriously losing feathers on their backs and heads, and were off-lay, despite wearing saddles and getting plenty of high-protein treats. They were eating their own eggs and some had real bite-marks from the roos. So this weekend I moved all the girls, pullets included, into the large area and all three roos into the small pen. The girls are already starting to lay again and seem a lot more relaxed and happy in their behaviors, and the pullets are getting along well with the adult hens after a small dust-up with the two leaders.

So I have four pullets who should be backing off on the protein, yet a whole bunch of bald hens who need protein supplements to start laying and grow some new feathers. And the only isolation pen is full of uh, *romantic* roosters.

Does it help any that they seem to have tapered off laying and I have seen only two other little dark brown spotted eggs since then? Or that whenever I do put down treats, the adult hens seem to be the ones gobbling them all up and the pullets just hang back and don't get much?