What time do chickens lay eggs??

[hollymh]

If the suns up, anytime is fair game! I have gotten eggs as early as 630am and as late as 8pm!!! Silly girls!

 

[Droitwich]

My Four Girls lay around 6am and 7.00am, when they started laying it was later in the morning but now they seem to have gotten into a pattern.

 

[ochochicas]

You should provide some kind of next box in both areas in case they need to use it. In my temporary coop the hens have a dog kennel and a cardboard box. They fight over the box and lay in it faithfully. There was only one time when a hen laid the egg on the ground and I think it was probably because the box was full (of crazy chickens) and she had no other choice.

Personally I don't like shavings because they tend to stick to the eggs once they are dry. I use timothy hay in my nest boxes. It provides a nice nesting base, it doesn't get kicked out of the boxes easily, and it is cheaper than shavings. The hay does not stick to the eggs either.

Our hens never lay before 7:00. They don't seem like "morning people" and usually don't get started until after it is fairly light out. A lot of the time they lay before 2 p.m. However, there have been weeks when they were laying regularly after 4 p.m. The one time the egg was on the ground was around 8 p.m.

We did have some chickens laying in the bushes in the horse pasture. We collected all the eggs we could find and put them in the next boxes. They seemed to get it after that. Now they have been using the nest boxes without fail. Definitely get some fake eggs or a golf ball to help the girls know where they should be going.

 

[Droitwich]

Personally I think all Hens are Different... I'm lucky that my Girls lay before 8am each day.... I'm not stressing over it and I leave them to there own devices.... they run free range around my Garden and when they first started laying they would lay in Crazy Places like behind a fence or in the Bushes or by the Garage area etc.... but now they lay in there coop and I'm so lucky they have sorted this out between themselves....
I think my girls are super intelligent....lol - but ok I'm Bias......
We live in Auckland New Zealand and they have sorted out there laying criteria accordingly...
I'm soooooo proud of my Girls.... they are amazing.....

 

[katekearby]

If they have access to the coop will they go back up in their to lay?

 

[Cherie1n2]

there is suppose to be a way to feel for bone displacement when a hen is getting ready to start laying for the first time but i'm not sure how it is done. If i find the article again or any diagrams i'll share them with you.

 

[bruceha2000]

Well.. next question.. I've been told they make quite a racket when they're laying and that I'll hear them.. is this true with all of you??

Some of mine sing, some sing with the other girls, some nonchalantly walk out of the coop quiet as a church mouse. Sometimes they sing and there is no egg.

9:02am, Eastern time.

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist! Pretty much what someone else said, anytime there is daylight.

Or no daylight. As has been mentioned in many replies, each is on her own clock. None of mine are as regular as every X hours though they are usually later each day until they take a day or 2 off. This is by hen, not as a group because there is no connection or "group plan". The Cubalayas are more 'lawn ornament' than 'egg layer' and typically lay only 2 or 3 a week. I have some that will lay 5, even 12 days in a row then take a day or 2 off. But that same girl might also run a pattern of 2 to 4 days, then a day off.

Sometimes they lay at night, rarely, but don't assume that if there is no light, they won't lay. It is time when it is time and they won't come off the roost when it is dark. They do not see well in the dark. I use deep litter and the roosts are 4' off the ground. Never had a broken one yet. 4 eggs yesterday, 2 under the roost when I went out to the coop. It wasn't early, about 9 AM but they NEVER lay under the roosts during the day and they were not warm at all. The other 2 were some time in the later afternoon and both were warm in a nest. I have occasionally had an egg laid on the coop floor just outside the nests during the day. Don't know if the girl got shoved out by a more dominant bird just before she laid or what. You MIGHT get 2 in one day, one really early and one late. Not sure how they manufacture that but it happens. I know because I have only 2 that lay white. If I get 3 white eggs, there is only one possible answer.

After an hour one of the kids was poking about in an overgrown hedge and what did she find? Yup, a whole pile of eggs!!!! Yippee, mystery solved.

Chickens like to lay where they think it is safe to do so. If there is an egg in a location, clearly that IS a safe place and they will choose that spot. When one lays out under a bush, the rest might use the same spot. That is why it is helpful to have fake eggs in each nest box, the eggs says 'this is a safe place'. I use plastic Easter Eggs with a small stone inside, taped shut. It needs to have a 'proper' weight for the girls to think it is an egg. But they don't seem to care that I mix the pointy half of one color egg with the round end of another color (makes it easy to spot the fakes in low light

). I've only found one egg outside, under an old piece of wood porch that had been taken off the house and moved back behind the barn. Don't know when it was laid, not even what day or week! Thankfully no other girls had followed the example. Mine are out all day and can go as far as they like, but as someone else posted, stay within ~ 100' of a building. They seem to know (as they seem to instinctively know EVERYTHING they NEED to know!) that they should go back to the nest in the coop when it is time to lay. And laying takes time which is why one needs a sufficient number of nests, pre 'stocked' with an egg. They can't line up and take turns, 1 now, 1 in 2 minutes, etc. AND, they seem to have their favorite nests so the more dominant ones will shove out a lower girl and she will have to pick a different box that day. Since they AREN'T on a group schedule, the favored box is likely available the next day.

Amazing that most are perfectly beautiful eggs, normal and, of the billions and billions of eggs layed every day, there are not really many glitches!

Just so those new to chickens are aware, they aren't ALWAYS perfectly beautiful. Most of the time, yes. But sometimes I get ones that are oddly shaped, flat on one side and wrinkly like an old deflating balloon. The occasional egg with no shell. ETA - Got one of the 'deflated balloon' eggs this morning under the roost, cold. Clearly laid after they went to bed and before they got up. Regular weight for the hen (60 grams) and she didn't lay yesterday. So it could be a LATE yesterday or EARLY today egg.

A REALLY weird one:


A TINY one (the numbers are 'day of the month' and weight in grams)


Weird shell


Double yolk from the really big ones (usually > 80 grams)


But any time I get a weird one, the next egg from the same hen is fine.

I would advise against using straw. Straw is hollow and has a tendency to harbor mites. Best to keep your clucks happy and healthy by avoiding this. A small square bale of good hay will last a long time and cost less than bags of pine shavings.

I suspect finding a square bale of good hay depends on where one lives. I would guess that a compressed bag of pine shavings is easier to come by in big cities. Where DOES one buy such things if they live in the big city? Never thought of that until now. Plus a bag of shavings is much less messy in the car, as in NO mess. Can't say the same with a bale of hay and not everyone has a truck bed to throw it in. I use pine shavings in the nests and coop floor. If a bit of pine gets stuck on a shell, just scrape it off with a finger nail; chickens do not coat their eggs with Super Glue.

SO, I manually TAKE them OUT to the yard enclosure every morning at 8:00 and bring them in again about 2:00!! It's for THIS reason that I ask about the laying egg time. They have a little cute tiki hut house my husband built them out there in case of any aerial predators and also we have a big umbrella out there for added shade..but NO nesting box!!

Train your girls to come to you and you won't have to hand carry them. They LOVE BOSS (black oil sunflower seed) and scratch (seed mix that includes some cracked corn). Give them some of the above (scratch should not be more than 10% of their diet so don't toss the 'candy' out like it is Halloween every day, all day) and call 'here, chick, chick, chick' or whatever you like because what they think you are saying "come get TREATS!!!!".

Chickens are creatures of habit, mine know that they get BOSS in the morning along with whatever food scraps are around and scratch when they are put in the barn for the night/ And they are INSISTENT that they get it. Yours will QUICKLY figure out that if they follow you to the run in the morning, they will get CANDY! And if they follow you back to the coop they will get CANDY! Don't give it to them at any other time or you might lose your 'power'

I take it your lanai has A/C? Otherwise there is no temperature reason to bring them back in at 2 since they have shade in their run. Have you noticed them looking distressed when it gets hot? If not, again no temperature reason to move them. And yep, food, water and a nest box in the run should cover everything! They WILL go back to the coop to lay if they can but you would have chickens all through your yard all day because they aren't going to stay in the run if they don't have to

. Hence the 'specifics' of having backyard chickens in 'town' vs backyard chickens in suburban settings vs backyard chickens in the countryside. Each has its own 'nuances' but all have similarities with respect to the needs of the chickens.

If they have access to the coop will they go back up in their to lay?

99% of the time, yes. Mine are out all day and head to the barn when they decide an egg is coming, then go back out with the other girls when they are done. As I said above, I've only found 1 egg outside the coop and they have laid almost 2,800 eggs since Nov 2012. Never would have guessed that many, especially since most of them took 3 months off after they moulted in the fall, if I didn't keep track daily.

Bruce

 

[DarleneE]

The lanai is not air conditioned. I bring them in about that time because the position of the sun eliminates ALL the shade out in the run pretty much. I mean there is still SOME shade but not like in the earlier hours. ALSO I have to pick my grandson up from school at that time and perhaps run some errands and I WON'T leave them out in their penned enclosure unless I'm home to keep an eye on them. They DO come to me..they ALWAYS think I have goodies...the ONLY reason I haven't tried to have them walk to the pen is because it's a LONG way from the lanai to the pen AND our yard is HUGE and I'm afraid they make take off and it be HELL to catch them!!?? So that's why I hand carry them..which I really kinda enjoy and don't mind doing. I LOVE holding them!! And IF they have or carry some disease, I guess I'm catching it cause I CAN'T refrain from kissing them on the back as I'm holding them!! SO.. now.. WHAT I did this morning was I put a cardboard box with some pine shavings and a golf ball in there for them. I have to say they were VERY curious!! They kept coming up to it and looking IN.. but did NOT actually GET in while I was out there anyway. Hopefully they will use it should they feel the urge to lay their first egg outside!! There's a golf ball in one of their coops nest box as well. I only HAD two!! Anyway I'm LOVING hearing all these AWESOME stories and all the GREAT ideas!! Thank you ALL so much!! I'm SO excited.. can't wait for the first egg!! Daisy squatted two days in a row in the very corner where I put the cardboard box at today and she just sat there like that when I went to pick her up!!?? I will keep you posted!!

 

[paustin]

Our hens love grass clippings or soft pine needles in the nesting boxes! They kick out straw and wood shavings.

 

[DarleneE]

That's ANOTHER good idea!! I will try that!! Thanks!!