What time of day do YOUR chickens lay?

[Fluffy_Butt_Hutt]

Just wondering what time of day your chickens prefer laying! Mine will make egg calls at 9 am but won't actually lay until 12 to as late as almost 5 pm. I know my girls are just getting in to laying, so whatever times they are laying now probably won't stay. I trust your experience over whatever the google AI is trying to tell me, so what time in the future should I expect my girls to lay?

 

[kattabelly]

Only have one laying atm but ime most will usually lay somewhen between early-ish morning and mid afternoon. Individual birds are often fairly consistent in laying roughly around the same time of day, at least over shorter periods of time.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I have no idea but it’s usually before 2 pm cause that’s about when I go check.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Chickens are as consistent about when they lay as everything else, which means not at all. That does not mean individuals won't be consistent, just not chickens in general.

I've had hens lay an egg every morning at 9:00 am. If she did not lay by 9:00 she would not lay that day. I'd get 5 or 6 in a row, then she would skip a day.

I've had others that lay about the same time each day. Often (but not always) these lay every other day instead of every day.

Many chickens lay about an hour later every day until they get late in the day and they skip a day, then start back early the following morning and gradually get later every day until they skip again.

There are different triggers that tell a hen when to release a yolk to start the internal process of making an egg. One of these is daylight, another is when the previous egg is laid. I'm sure there are others. They have these triggers so eggs are laid in daylight, not at night when on the roost. Some triggers are stronger with certain hens, not so much with others.

It takes on average about 25 hours for an egg to go through the hen's internal egg making factory. That's an average, some will be faster, some slower. That's why a lot get a little later every day, especially when a strong trigger to release a yolk is when they lay the egg while others can lay at the same time each day.

Some people like to think that every chicken in the world is identical to every other one. They worry because some of theirs are not "normal". In this especially you do not need to worry. Every chicken is an individual and does what she does.

what time in the future should I expect my girls to lay?

When they want to. I get most of my eggs before lunchtime but occasionally I'll have one on the nest laying an egg as the others are going to the roosts. Probably got her triggers wrong. They can lay any time of the day.

 

[Fluffy_Butt_Hutt]

Chickens are as consistent about when they lay as everything else, which means not at all. That does not mean individuals won't be consistent, just not chickens in general.

I've had hens lay an egg every morning at 9:00 am. If she did not lay by 9:00 she would not lay that day. I'd get 5 or 6 in a row, then she would skip a day.

I've had others that lay about the same time each day. Often (but not always) these lay every other day instead of every day.

Many chickens lay about an hour later every day until they get late in the day and they skip a day, then start back early the following morning and gradually get later every day until they skip again.

There are different triggers that tell a hen when to release a yolk to start the internal process of making an egg. One of these is daylight, another is when the previous egg is laid. I'm sure there are others. They have these triggers so eggs are laid in daylight, not at night when on the roost. Some triggers are stronger with certain hens, not so much with others.

It takes on average about 25 hours for an egg to go through the hen's internal egg making factory. That's an average, some will be faster, some slower. That's why a lot get a little later every day, especially when a strong trigger to release a yolk is when they lay the egg while others can lay at the same time each day.

Some people like to think that every chicken in the world is identical to every other one. They worry because some of theirs are not "normal". In this especially you do not need to worry. Every chicken is an individual and does what she does.


When they want to. I get most of my eggs before lunchtime but occasionally I'll have one on the nest laying an egg as the others are going to the roosts. Probably got her triggers wrong. They can lay any time of the day.

Alright, I guess I'll just have to work harder on getting some of them to understand that there are many nesting boxes of varied condition and they shouldn't want to lay in the bushes ! I was going to mention, my question is mostly because I have a separate grassy large run for the hens during the day. I move them when they show obvious signs of needing to lay for over 30 minutes and sometimes I'm waiting two hours for them to pump out that egg to move them back. I know my set-up is pretty flawed, because often they will go in a laying box and come out just a few minutes later desperately wanting out with no egg, just to repeat the "let me lay my egg in the coop" behaviors 10 minutes later. Just got laying milk crates in the day-run and they're not very taken to it. Maybe it will just take time to settle out, lol!

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Alright, I guess I'll just have to work harder on getting some of them to understand that there are many nesting boxes of varied condition and they shouldn't want to lay in the bushes ! I was going to mention, my question is mostly because I have a separate grassy large run for the hens during the day. I move them when they show obvious signs of needing to lay for over 30 minutes and sometimes I'm waiting two hours for them to pump out that egg to move them back. I know my set-up is pretty flawed, because often they will go in a laying box and come out just a few minutes later desperately wanting out with no egg, just to repeat the "let me lay my egg in the coop" behaviors 10 minutes later. Just got laying milk crates in the day-run and they're not very taken to it. Maybe it will just take time to settle out, lol!

Mine were used to going out for limited "yard-ranging" in fenced areas with the run door propped open before they started laying. They've always just taken themselves back into the run and coop when it's time for them. Never laid out in the yard, etc., as far as I know. The only time there's an issue is when one girl has gotten a little too comfy in the nesting box that is wanted by the next pullet in line, with the nesting box right next to it that is absolutely identical to (and empty) remained shunned and unloved.

To me, it's a lot like a woman delivering a baby. It will happen when it happens. All three of mine (kids, not chickens) were late per the calendar, the last one absurdly so, and anyone trying to guess if it was finally "now" would have lost their minds. (Also probably their lives, as it was way more frustrating for me than anyone else, and being anxiously monitored would have driven me berserk!)

Is your grassy run area somewhat predator-proof, or at least predator-resistant? Can other critters easily get into your run if the door were left open?

 

[Fluffy_Butt_Hutt]

Mine were used to going out for limited "yard-ranging" in fenced areas with the run door propped open before they started laying. They've always just taken themselves back into the run and coop when it's time for them. Never laid out in the yard, etc., as far as I know. The only time there's an issue is when one girl has gotten a little too comfy in the nesting box that is wanted by the next pullet in line, with the nesting box right next to it that is absolutely identical to (and empty) remained shunned and unloved.

To me, it's a lot like a woman delivering a baby. It will happen when it happens. All three of mine (kids, not chickens) were late per the calendar, the last one absurdly so, and anyone trying to guess if it was finally "now" would have lost their minds. (Also probably their lives, as it was way more frustrating for me than anyone else, and being anxiously monitored would have driven me berserk!)

Is your grassy run area somewhat predator-proof, or at least predator-resistant? Can other critters easily get into your run if the door were left open?

The only entrance/exit is a 5'5" door. Meshed around the entire area and has extra doubled chicken wire skirt that is 1'6" around the outside, large rocks on top (so the girls don't try to dig right there and scratch themselves up). It currently sits 20 feet from the coop, and while they all have honing instincts towards the coop, if I let them out of the day-run when it's bedtime, they'll often get distracted by the surroundings instead! I don't blame them really, but for now I'm just carrying them back and forth. This is quite easy, they now walk up to me to get picked up. This separated run from their coop run gets rotated around the grass (every month) so the chickens never truly kill a spot and more like clean up the moss for us! We've considered a chicken tunnel but it seems unlikely we'd start doing that and free-ranging was not the option, because some girls decided going towards a bobcat was a good idea

Current solutions include letting them scream until they're truly ready to lay and getting them used to the crates, but I do not mind moving them back and forth. I just mind them screaming like a hawk is coming at them!

 

[Beau plus penny]

Just wondering what time of day your chickens prefer laying! Mine will make egg calls at 9 am but won't actually lay until 12 to as late as almost 5 pm. I know my girls are just getting in to laying, so whatever times they are laying now probably won't stay. I trust your experience over whatever the google AI is trying to tell me, so what time in the future should I expect my girls to lay?

i have no idea bc its always different

 

[Evadig]

Mine usually lay before noon. The latest is usually two pm.

 

[eikome]

My two laying old ladies (6 and 7 years old) have a very consistent egg cycle. It's something like 30 hours long. So one day they'll lay early in the morning, the next day they'll lay in the afternoon, the next day they'll take a break, and then the cycle repeats. They never lay after about 5pm though, regardless of where they are in their cycle.

I also have 20 week old pullets that are just beginning to lay, so they're all over the place! One of them dropped an egg at 3am last night while she was sleeping lol.