whats the earliest youve had a chicken lay?

[1chicklady]

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.

 

[sdsmowen]

Wow this was really helpful i was wondering these same things ours are 14 weeks now so weve started thinking about it and preparing the nest boxes.

 

[wilbilt]

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.

Wouldn't that be closer to 16 weeks? I am curious as my 6 are exactly the same age and seem like they are just about ready to start.

 

[Fred's Hens]

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.

Wouldn't that be closer to 16 weeks? I am curious as my 6 are exactly the same age and seem like they are just about ready to start.

Yes, Doing the math, I also get 16-17 weeks, which is still incredibly early. The chicks are often more than day old or two days old when purchased, as the hatchery hatches, then ships to TSC and then they finally get sold and taken home. It is not uncommon for pullets of many more traditional, dual purpose breeds to delay POL until 28 weeks. The lighter weight super layers, bred to lay early and heavy, do mature quickly.

Chicks fed super high protein through their lives will also start up earlier than those switched to lower protein feed at the 12 week mark. Some folks actually slow down the process a bit, to allow the pullets body to strengthen before POL.

 

[music4mysoul]

Our barred rock laid her first egg at 17 weeks and has laid every day (3 weeks) but two since. She usually lays in the morning, but our Favorelle seems to lay early afternoon so far - she's only been laying for a week and every two days or so.

 

[1chicklady]

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.

And thank you Fred's Hens for your comment. It was actually 17 weeks and 1 day as of the 28th of June. I thought that according to all that I had read that 12 weeks was very early. Sorry for the miscalculation and thank you for the correction.

 

[JNorth]

We have one over-achiever in our flock of TSC RSL's, that laid her first egg @ 16 weeks ( I too mis-calculated her age and was really surprised when I realized that she was that young). She has since given us six eggs. I think she is still getting into the swing of things though, she lays two eggs and then take two days off. They are small but otherwise perfect eggs.... I can only hope that when the others catch up they do as well!

Oh and as for the time of day, she lays in the evening just before dinner.

 

[FreedomLover]

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.

 

[calman5565]

any time. three of mine are regular. one at 10:30, one at 12:00 and one at 2:30.

 

[MineAlways]

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.

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