whats the earliest youve had a chicken lay?

[ChickaBamBam]

I've had some lay as early as 5 AM

LMBO!!!!
Loved that!!!

Well, my first batch of chickens ... Red Sex Link Pullets & Buff Orpingtons are about 17 weeks old and I just got my first two eggs today.

Yay! Can't wait to be there. Both my RSL and Buf Orp will be 17 wks on Thursday. I've been anxiously checking every day.

 

[NuAgePaulBunyun]

Believ e it or not...ours started laying at 12 weeks. We purchased our 1-2 day old chicks from Tractor Supply on March 1, 2012. We got our 1st egg this past Friday, June 29 and we got 4 more eggs today, July 1. We have 1 Buff Orph and 6 Sexlinks with 1 Buff rooster. I don't know for sure but I believe one of the eggs is from the Buff because it is a lighter color than the other four. I attribute their early laying to us having a very robust rooster and a happy bunch of well fed, well housed chicks. We do let them free range during the day. Has anyone else had chicks lay this early? Just hope they keep it up.

bought ours same time from Orshelin and nothing yet. i go out every morning fingers crossed that the hens have spout one out, but to no avail. guess the heat isnt helping either. we tried a fake egg and nothing. they are just now starting to sit in their nesting boxes. but have a question about placment of boxes. They (hens) always roost at top of the coop and the boxes are much lower. should i move them closer to their natural resting place. i am 6' 4" and the hens are about eye level when hanging out in the coop. the boxes are about 2 feet off the ground. Does that big of difference in height detour them from using the nesting boxes provided ?

 

[wilbilt]

Thank you wilbilt, for catching my error. You are very correct. I guess that I was just so excited to finally get eggs that I didn't calculate correctly. I started with the 1st of March and ended with the 1st of June rather than the 1st of July.

My 6 are all from TSC March 1st as well. A couple of them have been squatting for the past week or so, and they are all talking like crazy. I have one "Golden" that was in the coop by herself this morning making lots of noise, so maybe it is almost time.

 

[dragonlair]

Any time for mine. I work evenings, so I am not up early. I guess the girls are not either because they don't really start laying until 0830 or 0900 and go until noon.

 

[mcjessen]

My first batch of girls (BA and two BO's) started laying between 20 - 24 weeks. The second batch of girls (delaware, gold sex-link and speckled sussex) are only 11 weeks tomorrow so we've got a little way to go. I'm interested to see when my gold sex-link starts laying as I heard they lay a ton of eggs. I'm thinking she might start early. Her voice is already changing. LOL!

 

[1chicklady]

I got mine on March 1st at TSC too and one started laying on the 29th as well they are around 17 weeks though but thats still early!
I now have 2 laying and today I got a huge one! Its a little bigger then a store bought large it looks massive compared to the little tiny one it gave me 4 days ago

Mine are actually 17 weeks and 2 days today. I did a miscalculation by not counting through the end of June. Guess I was so excited that they started laying earlier than I had heard and read I didn't count correctly. As of today, July 3, all chicks seem to be laying as we got 7 eggs today. Two were softies, 1 busted when it hit the shavings under the roost but it still counts as an egg. I'd love to know how anyone tell which chick lays at a particular time if they are all together and their eggs are the same color and size? Just curious.

 

[sdsmowen]

All these comments have me getting excited we got ours from TSC as well and they have been getting chatty in the mornings so maybe we will have layers soon too

 

[1chicklady]

thats a good question i dont know can anyone tell us do all hens lay only in the morning ?

Mine lay morning or afternoon and possible evening but... not sure of that.

 

[1chicklady]

bought ours same time from Orshelin and nothing yet. i go out every morning fingers crossed that the hens have spout one out, but to no avail. guess the heat isnt helping either. we tried a fake egg and nothing. they are just now starting to sit in their nesting boxes. but have a question about placment of boxes. They (hens) always roost at top of the coop and the boxes are much lower. should i move them closer to their natural resting place. i am 6' 4" and the hens are about eye level when hanging out in the coop. the boxes are about 2 feet off the ground. Does that big of difference in height detour them from using the nesting boxes provided ?

Yesterday, 2 of ours laid softies from their 3 tier removable roost which is about 36" off the coop floor. One busted and the other survived hiting the shavings below. Don't know whether or not the height of yours could deter them from laying in their boxes but if your chicks lay an egg that high off the floor while on the roost, don't see how the egg could survive. Our box is on the outside opposite wall from their roost and is about 1 1/2 foot off the floor of the coop. The coop is 2' off the ground. It is built into the outside wall with a flip open top for easy removal of eggs and a slide out bottom for easy cleaning of the box floor. About whether or not they will use your nexting boxes because they are much lower... we did't get any eggs this morning when we let the chicks out around 9:30 - 10:00. But around 1pm, one of the chicks (have no idea which) made her way back into the run, up the steps into the coop to the nesting box and laid her egg so I would think that it would not make a difference where the nesting box is. Ours, with the exception of the 1st egg which was laid in the run against the fence and the 2 which dropped from the roost, have been laid in the nesting boxes. When the 1st egg was laid, we didn't have the fake eggs and our nesting boxes were not open. We kept them closed until we got the first egg so it was new terrority for them when we opend them up. Maybe moving them might encourage them to use the boxes but I'd suggest maybe keeping the boxes from them until you have seen your 1st egg. Best of luck!

 

[lilclementine]

I have several 16 week old hens of various breeds, plus four 1.5 year old hens (two buff rocks and two barred rocks), and this morning I had SIX eggs. We rarely get four on the same day from the older hens so six eggs is bizarre. I suspect that the two very young buff orpingtons are to be blamed/praised, but I had read that they usually didn't start laying til they were older. And 16 weeks seems so early! Is this normal? I also have anconas, australorps and aracaunas and at least three of them are roosters (we're trying to decide which one to keep!) They're all solid eggs, albeit a bit small, but they're not the 'slimeballs' I was expecting. Is this okay?