When do chickens lay?

[catsandpoultry]

My GC pullet seems mature and ready to lay. She has been squatting and seems like she has been trying to lay for a few days, but no egg. She is 21 weeks, so should have laid a while back. Am I getting too excited?

 

[barbjess]

This has been a great thread to read through and I hope someone can help me. It is November 29th now so the chickens are in their coop and settled by 6pm since it gets dark so early. I have 24 chickens (22 are hens) that are 23 weeks old and at least 5 are starting to lay eggs now. I am not doing any supplemental lighting.

About three weeks ago I had uncovered the nesting boxes since they were approaching possible egg laying time. Last week a few chickens started to sleep in the nests so I would pick each one up and put her on a roost. Now usually they are not in the nest boxes when I go to lock up the coop. Tonight a 6pm I found one hen on the nest box ledge so I moved her to the roost and locked up the coop. Then I started to wonder if she was thinking about laying and not preparing to sleep in the coop. This led me to this thread to check if chickens lay eggs in the dark and I get the impression from this thread that it is possible although not that likely.

My question is: should I continue to remove any hen from the nesting box when locking up for the evening or should I let her be in case she is going to lay an egg?

 

[Bens-Hens]

Personally, I have had a pullet lay after dark just once. I have tried to stop girls from sleeping in nests and that is much harder to break.

With out pullets, we have either found the first egg on the ground, or a soft egg under the roost (which is best above the nest box in height)

Pooping in the nest makes for messy eggs down the track and best avoided IMO.

 

[barbjess]

Personally, I have had a pullet lay after dark just once. I have tried to stop girls from sleeping in nests and that is much harder to break.

With out pullets, we have either found the first egg on the ground, or a soft egg under the roost (which is best above the nest box in height)

Pooping in the nest makes for messy eggs down the track and best avoided IMO.

So you are saying I should continue to remove any hen from the nesting box when shutting down at night. Thank you for your response...this is my first time through this adventure.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Sorry for not being clear. Yes.

I take them from the nest and plonk them on the roost where they normally will stay. If you start to find droppings in the nest in the morning they are going back to it.

Do you have fake eggs, golf balls or some other incentive in the nest boxes? I noticed ours did a few practice runs at making a nest during the day, but still were caught off guard when the first one came along.

Generally, ours lay in the AM, sometimes one may lay in the afternoon, but night is very rare for us.

 

[kwhit]

I've got 6 hens that are coming up on 9 months old. They all had been laying pretty much like clock work. I do notice that the girls are beginning to lay fewer eggs on some days. Every couple of days I may get 6 eggs for a day or two. And every couple of more days I get 3-4. I did notice that during our last cold snap in Massachusetts the girls really cut back on laying. Maybe 1-3 eggs? I had a few eggs that broke while they were laying them. My question is when shall I expect them to molt if they were hatched early last March? Someone told me they will molt this Fall/Winter.....

So I have concluded that in my first year ever of having chickens it is a bit of a guessing game and that if you are new to this hobby then live and learn. If you are experienced, then you share the knowledge. Some like to light the coop, and some don't. I haven't decided to experiment this year with that endeavor. Right now I have nightmares and worries about whether or not the chickens are warm enough, or is the coop water tight, or pest proof still. I think we're ok but I still find that water has dripped in some how. Of course it shouldn't surprise me with the aftermath of that windy, rainy storm we had here last Wednesday.

One good book I enjoy to read is Raising Chickens for Dummies. I also enjoy GRIT magazine. I really like this website and the threads to read as well.

Keep up the great reads!

 

[ginnychick]

We also have not had any night laying. Have found eggs very early in the morning if they happen to have skipped laying the previous day.
As for the 'chicken in the box', we have one particular hen - Ginger, who sleeps in the box nightly, the others roost. Guess you could train by putting on the roost to give them the idea, we just let them ' do their thing' as long as it's not too bad.

Our girls lay form right before 8am til right after 12pm. I take them out by around that time in the chicken tractor and have noticed that if they had intended to lay that day, but just haven't, that they actually have waited til they are back to the coop to lay. I used to wait til they all laid before moving them out to the tractor, but since the shorter days and not laying every day, can't keep waiting or the just won't get to the new grass. All has worked out okay.

Our egg production has dropped off with the cold/shorter daylight hours. Getting an average of 4-5 eggs per chicken per week.

Just in the midst of putting together a waterer into a heated doggy dish as outlined by one of the posts online here on Backyard Chickens by Gargoyle. Hope it work; sound very doable and inexpensive. Tired of changing the frozen waterers continually.

Also, looking into adding 3 or so more hours of light to the coop to help with the production but allow them to sleep at least 8 + hours a night. Thinking of putting a light, I think it is called a 'Happy Light' which used to treat against SAD, into the coop, which gives daylight type of lighting and emits just a bit of heat which should help since it is freezing at night.

Good luck with your girls. Let us know how you make out and if you get them trained not to sleep in their boxes. LOL, they all have such different personalities, just like little kids!

 

[barbjess]

I do have golf balls in the nests and was amazed when I saw the first egg between two golf balls. Thank you all for your responses.

 

[chickenlily13]

My hens are 8 months old and one has started to molt around the neck and tail feathers , have 8 total , one is year and a half years old. Hope they all don't molt at once , stress of cold weather doesn't help!

 

[tatertot]

Question? Do chickens molt that young? I have one I thought has been feather picked ..but could she be molting?