When do chickens lay?

[Bens-Hens]

We have 10 pullets, three have just started to lay. Our little rooster likes to join in with his own version of an egg song. I got a quick video yesterday!

In the video we have two about to lay their very first eggs, one about to climb in the box to lay her third ever and some just standing around, hopefully getting the hint lol. Ages range from 19 to 24 weeks.


Our's seem to lay in the morning, but our Australorp seems to be a bit of a princess and takes hours, accompanied by a heap of singing and panting.

 

[rig001]

mine lay in the afternoon. somewhere around 1:00

 

[Fibbott]

Mine lay by 10:00am every morning, and they each seem to announce what they have done. I find it hilarious!

We had our first egg today, and loads of clucking after... So proud!!
Once they lay one, do they just keep going, or do they sort of warm up to their standard weekly lay?
I'm in Melbourne, Australia, and we're a week from Spring starting, so I'm hoping they all get on the lay!!

 

[spainterrd]

Our chickens will be 18 weeks old tomorrow. Thus far, we've found one little egg 5 days ago. So excited. Now nada. I think all chicken owners feel that same anticipation.

 

[SunAndDirt]

I have one girl that gets her job done before she goes out to play. The rest wait until I leave for work. I'm pretty sure it's an insurance policy- I have to visit them a few times a day if they don't all lay at once

 

[GAFarmGirl87]

I have 8 hens which are about 7 months old. When they first started laying, I was getting eggs at all times of the day. Now they are getting on their cycle & it's a little more predictable. I check for eggs 2-3 times a day. Every other day, I'll have the majority of my eggs laid by 1pm, the other days, I'll get 1 or 2 eggs in the morning, and the rest in the evening. They always lay their eggs before 6pm though, & I hardly ever have an egg before 10 or 11 in the morning.

I think there may be many factors that determine what time they lay, like Location, weather, daylight hours, breed, & age.

One thing I've noticed is on days when we get afternoon storms, I've got all my eggs laid by about 1 or 2 pm. It's like they know there's a storm coming. And on dreary days I'm lucky to get any eggs at all.

Just my 2 cents

 

[PastorLarry]

first egg today at 2:30

 

[Darkesroh]

My hens are young and just started laying within the last month. Both girls are usually done by 10 a.m. I did notice before they started laying that they were checking the nests out and rooting around in there. I think it was about 2 days after that when she first started laying.

 

[Props4Chicks]

My girls are 16 1/2 week old Golden Comets. I noticed last week, that when I petted their backs they would squat which isn't something that they used to do. I thought to myself, That was strange. So I searched around on Backyard Chickens (thank goodness for this site!) and read how they would do the squatting thing before they start laying. I had their nesting boxes closed up because I didn't want them to get the idea that nesting box equals bed. I opened up their nesting boxes and put some hay in there and the waiting began. I would check everyday. All I saw was were they had scratched around in them. It rained all day yesterday so I couldn't check the boxes. Today, I go out and let the girls out to roam and do their chicken thing, I check the nesting boxes and... BEHOLD...



TWO EGGS! and one was a double yoker!

I'm so proud and I have no idea when it happened.

 

[OKchkman]

What time of day to chickens usually lay? I have heard early morning and others have said it depends on the chicken. Any ideas as I am new to raising chickens and am not sure.

It's good to see another "okie" on here. As far as the chickies go, I have been raising chickens for a couple years now in SE Oklahoma (Hugo). The first birds I had were all killed when a stray dog ripped through the pen one night. We now have 8 new girls, 2 blonde Americuanas, 4 NHR, and 2 RIR. Like the first birds these are taking about 4-5 months to start laying. The heat does have an affect to a point. We actually had our first egg the other day. I feed them laying crumbles and throw scratch out for them. Sometime I'll put Oyster shell in their feed. This makes the egg shells harder. I also take handfulls of longer green grass and throw in the pen, they go crazy over that stuff.